Infamy
by I'S Watcher
Summary: No one ever thought that Albus would ever end up like this. That he would spiral downwards in the way he did, but really, they should have seen it coming. Slytherin!Albus. Contains swearing. It's rather dark.
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome, dear reader, to possibly the longest fanfiction that I have ever written (or at least chapter). Admittedly this was meant to be a oneshot, but it started getting so long that I realised it would maybe be better if it were in two parts (or at least that is what I am planning...). Just a few quick notes about this story:_

_1. Smoking: I am not encouraging it at all, really I'm not, but it is supposed to be symbolic (or something like that) of Albus' loss of innocence (in a way) but also his addictive personality, otherwise I would have had to have used drugs or something like that which is possibly more offensive. Sorry I can't say anything else, otherwise it would spoil some of the plot, but if you don't like it, please just ignore it._

_2. Tenses: The story occasionally goes into a different tense, this is on purpose (well sort of)._

_3. Swearing: Yes, there is some in this story, I've rated it T for now but tell me if you think the rating should be raised._

_4. The Elder Wand: I have used the film's version of its fate._

_Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! _

_- 10th of April 2012_

_EDIT: I changed the title of the story. Next part should be coming soon._

_- 11th of August 2012_

* * *

_Infamy_

Albus is half-way though his first year at Hogwarts when he gives up trying to talk to his brother. He didn't understand what the problem is, but apparently what house you are in is a big thing at Hogwarts. Especially if you're in Slytherin.

–/

Him, Malfoy, Avery and a boy called Nott are all in a dorm together. When the First Year Slytherins go to their dorm on the first night of term, Albus' dormmates do not even spare him a look.

–/

"You're going to turn out evil now. Just like Voldemort." James hissed at his brother in the dark corridor, both were alone, and heading in opposite directions.

"What are you talking about James?" The darkness hid his brother's teasing smile, and Albus could not understand why James was saying such horrible things to him. "I'm still the same!" James however did not reply, and walked in the other direction from him. "I'm not like them!" He shouted desperately after his brother, but the other boy ignored him and turned the corner. Hot, fat tears began to drip down his face, but he did not make a sound as he pushed his back against the wall and sunk down.

–/

"Potter?" The dark haired boy was sitting on his bed reading before he was going to go to sleep, and he turned to face the speaker, slightly surprised.

"Yes?" The speaker was Malfoy, someone who had not even spoken to Albus since Albus had told him that he 'never ever wanted to be friends with a Death Eater!'.

"Do you hate yourself?"

"What?" Albus knew that Malfoy was probably doing this just to wind him up.

"Well, you're in the same house as Voldemort. Your brother will not speak to yo-"

"How do you know that!" Albus interrupted. Malfoy carried on, pretending not to have heard the question.

"I don't think your cousin is speaking to you. And you're having a conversation with a Death-Eater's son." Shifting his position on his bed slightly, Albus pondered the question.

"Well, I don't think that the house makes the person. My father-"

"I don't care about what your father thinks."

"Okay. Well, there have been good Slytherins haven't there? And bad Gryffindors, so really I don't think it matters. And, well most of the other houses are pretty horrible to us, so maybe _we're _the good guys here." Albus paused, "James is a dick. Rose is stubborn. I'm sure I'll get over it." With that, the dark haired boy picked up the book he had gently placed on his lap, and began reading again.

–/

He gave a hiss of frustration when the contents of his bag spilt over the floor for the second time in the day, and quickly turned on his heel, wand at the ready. He didn't really know any effective spells that could threaten someone, but hopefully his reputation as a Slytherin would help him find the guilty person. A Third Year Gryffindor gives a nervous look at him, and Albus glares.

"I would appreciate if you would stop doing that," his voice if full of a venom he did not even know he had, "otherwise you might find yourself in a sticky situation at some point." He says after he walks up to the frozen girl. She gave him a nervous look, and then pulled out her own wand.

"And what are you going to do then?"

"Nothing. Not now at least." The girl shifted backward, and then fixed him with a glare. Other students are passed them by, unaware of the confrontation beside them.

"Well. Don't blame me. _Your _brother said he would give me a galleon if I did it when I saw you." The girl could clearly see Albus' crestfallen expression, and she gave a laugh and walked away. Albus stood in the same position for a moment longer, until he walked back to his things which were scattered in the now-empty corridor, and began to gather them up in his arms to walk to his next lesson.

–/

Sometimes Albus cries at night, when he thinks no one is awake, and he begins to feel something he had rarely felt before for his brother, hatred.

–/

School work is Albus' life, he tries to take up as much of his time with it to distract from the fact that he had no friends. He sees Rose in the library quite often, but she is rarely working, just gossiping with friends, and he finds himself beginning to hate her for having friends.

–/

He sighed and crossed out the previous incorrect statement from the paper and wrote a new line. The Charms essay was due in for three days time, but it did not hurt to start early. He did not think himself an intelligent boy, but one advantage of not having any friends meant he had plenty of time to study, and he had some of the best marks in the whole year. The Slytherin Common Room was quiet, as it was usually and he found his eyes drifting towards the fireplace in the corner of the room. He did not think he would have liked this room, but he found that it's quiet and relaxing atmosphere suited him quite well.

The was a sound as the door slid open, and loud voices could be heard outside. Albus clenched his teeth, perhaps he should amend his statement, _most of the time _it had a quiet and relaxing atmosphere. There was bark of laugher and Malfoy stumbled into the room with Nott, the two looked at him quickly, but resumed their conversation. They looked as if they were not going to leave the room any time soon, and Albus gave a huff of frustration.

"Would you two mind being a little quieter?" He asked, both turned to him, and gave him a curious look. His heart beat a little faster in his chest, this was probably the most he had said to them since the Christmas holidays. The nodded, but it seemed as if they paid little attention to what he had said as they continued their conversation at the same level. "Didn't you hear what I said?" Albus asked after a short while, and Nott smirked.

"What are you doing that's so important?" The boy strolled over and cast an eye casually over Albus' work. "What the hell are you doing that for? It's not in until Thursday." Malfoy hung behind Nott, clearly nervous.

"Augustus, just leave him alone." The other boy shook his head, and the blond boy gave a huff, Albus remained silent and simply looked up at Nott. The dark haired boy sneered and bent down to him.

"Why do you never talk?" Bright blue eyes looked over his face and he felt as if he were being inspected. "I suppose you think you're too good for us." For a moment Albus thought he could see a flash of sadness in the other boy's eyes, but he blinked and it was gone, but it was that which spurred Albus into talking.

"I don't!" He suddenly blurted out. The other boy looked slightly shocked, and Albus gave a sigh. "It's just my brother. He'll be awful to me if I talk to you."

"Bullshit."

"It's not."

"Your brother is not in Slytherin is he?"

"No." Albus replied confused.

"He doesn't hide in our dorm does he?"

"No..."

"Well, how come you don't speak to us here then, or in our dorm?" His mind raced to find an answer to that.

"I've had a conversation with Malfoy. And you guys weren't exactly welcoming to me."

"That's because you called us Death Eaters on the train!" Malfoy suddenly spoke up, in the corner of the Common Room the fire gave a hiss and all three First Years jumped suddenly.

"Why are you even talking to me anyway. You clearly don't like me."

"What are you talking about? This is probably the longest conversation I've ever had with you." Nott quickly said and he moved to where a chair was and sat down. His hands lay clasped on the wooden table and Albus lay down his quill.

"You all hate my dad. And you all hate my brother. And you called my aunt a mudblood." Nott looked at him curiously, unclasped his hands and ran one through his hair.

"You're not your family though."

"They're still my relatives though."

"We're not defined by family. Sure, family makes us until we're eleven, but then we can make our own choices. We're away from all of them."

"I'm not." Albus replied grimly. "They'd all tell my family out of school if I tried to make friends with you. And then they'd think that I'd be going around calling everyone mudbloods, and cursing them."

"I don't think they would." Albus gave a shrug and leaned back into his chair.

"Whatever."

–/

Albus quickly closed the door behind him as he walked into the First Year Slytherin dorm, Nott and Malfoy were away, and Avery sat on his bed quietly, his head buried in a book. The boy did not acknowledge Albus' entrance and he made his way to his bed. They sat together in silence, Albus tidying his messy area, and then Albus made a decision.

"What are you reading?" His voice pierced the silent room and Avery looked at him in surprise. The brown eyed boy fixed him with a suspicious expression, and opened his mouth to speak.

"What does it matter to you?"

"It doesn't really." The other boy shook his head slowly, and shut the book.

"Charms actually, I'm reading up for that essay."

"Oh. I've done all the notes for it, you can borrow them if you'd like." For the second time in the space of five minutes Avery looked at him curiously.

"Sure." And just like that, the first seeds of friendship were sown.

–/

"So do you have any friends in Slytherin?" His mother turned back to him from the passenger seat of the car, James' elbow was prodding uncomfortably into his side and Albus pushed it away before he answered.

"Yeah. A few."

"And the rest of them haven't caused you any trouble?"

"Not really. One of the girls was a bit harsh to me at first, but they're alright."

"What was her name?" His father spoke suddenly.

"Maria Zambini."

"So all the usual suspects are in Slytherin then?" He asked. Albus felt a tinge of annoyance, but pushed it down, quickly he changed the subject.

"Why do we have to use the car? Why can't we just floo?"

"Because it's always a problem to get a permit. And petrol's less expensive than floo powder." James gave a snort and Albus couldn't understand why. He ignored it and closed his eyes.

"Tell me we'll be there soon."

"Albus, we've driven before, you've never made that kind of complaint before."

"But it's such an annoying method of getting around." He said as he opened his eyes. The conversation died of at that point, and Albus stared pass his sister out of the window at the elegant houses in the area of London they were driving though. He was pretty crap at directions, and although he had made the journey multiple times before, it still did not mean that he had any idea where they were.

But finally they arrived in front of Grimmald Place. The house had not changed since the winter holidays, and the only different were the spring flowers just beginning to make their up from the ground, although the weather was still quite cold. The car was left parked by the next-door house, and it took a moment for two of the other houses in the street to separate and reveal Albus' home. Soon enough the family were back in the gloomy hall of the house. Although Albus' mother was constantly complaining about the dark and depressing state of the house, Albus quite liked it. It had atmosphere, and a nice garden. His parents had threatened moving hundreds of times but it was apparently the safest house in the whole of London, if not England. Albus trudged quietly up the stairs towards his room, but it did not take long for the curtains on the portrait of Mrs Black to fly open, and for her to begin her constant tirade.

"Hallo Mrs Black." Albus said quickly, and the figure in the portrait gave him a kindly look.

"Hello Albus, how are you?" He flashed a brilliant smile, and replied that he was well thank you, how was she. And they had a civil conversation, until his brother came barging up the stairs with a mug of tea and almost spilt it onto the painting.

Even before Albus had come home at Christmas and told the portrait that he was a Slytherin, he had always been the one who was able to calm her down. Apparently he reminded her of her son when he was his age. He was not sure whether he should take this as a compliment, considering that one spent over a decade in Azkaban, and the other was a Death-Eater who converted, and was then killed. But it allowed him some power over the household, as he was the only one who could, to quote James, 'shut the hag up.'

However, James' rude entrance to the scene set her off again, and Albus quickly bid her good-bye, and practically ran up the next flight of stairs to his room. His room was decorated in Slytherin colours, and now he was thankful he had not been given the room next door which had gaudy red and gold everywhere. It was funny now, when he thought about it, that he had ever thought he would make it to Gryffindor when his entire life up to that point had been pointing to the fact he would get into Slytherin, not only the decoration of his room, but also certain other subtle things, the fact that the half dead House-elf Kreacher seemed to be in love with him but no one else in the family, and the fact that Mrs Black liked him, but also his general demeanour and lack of bravery.

It did not take him long to kick off his shoes and flop into the gigantic double bed. The headboard had the Black family crest engraved on it, and it made him wonder why his father and mother had decided to keep the thing. But he was grateful, it was possible the best in the house. Or it at least had the best mattress. He gave sigh and melted into the comfortable bed, and before he knew it his mum was calling him down for supper.

–/

Although Albus had finally made friends, he sometimes felt awkward around the other Slytherins, especially Zambini, who had a habit of glaring at him. The train chugged slowly along, and Albus gave a sigh and gave up reading his book.

"So what did you do over the holidays?" The other boy glanced up at him from his book, and closed his too, but not before folding over a page.

"We went away to Italy. My family has a house there." Albus gave a nod, and felt a pang of jealousy.

"You're so lucky you got to go away." Avery gave sound that sounded affirmative.

"You stayed in London didn't you?"

"Yeah, it was fucking boring. I wish we could go away, but mum and dad are always working." He picked at the bottom of his shirt. "I mean, it seems as if they always have an excuse not to go abroad."

"It's not that interesting. Italian wizards are kind of backwards, they go around in togas and everything."

"Togas? As in the skirt things."

"Yeah. I mean, some wear trousers, but most of the time it is togas. The shops are pretty crap as well. And they don't like muggleborns." Albus raised a curious eyebrow.

"I wouldn't think you'd be bothered by that, considering Nott." Avery gave a shake of his head.

"It's all a bit distasteful though."

"True." Bored of the conversation Albus began to look out the window, although darkness had set upon the countryside by now, and in the distance he could make out the tall towers and bright windows of Hogwarts.

"We're almost there." A broad grin found it's way onto his face, just four months ago, Albus could not imagine having this reaction coming back to Hogwarts, but now he couldn't wait to be sitting down at the Slytherin table, with people he finally called friends.

–/

_Dear Albus, _

_The holidays so far have been boring, I am looking forward to returning to school though. Italy (as per usual) is hot and smelly, and the locals have become even worse this year, I feel as if I have heard the wo__rd '__mezzosangue' enough to last a life time. Although I don't doubt Malfoy, Nott and Zambini will pollute our poor ears with the English translation this year as they have for the last two. _

_ Mother has been a bore, and wouldn't let me go swimming in the sea this afternoon, and Father has refused to get involved. I have no idea what is wrong with the woman sometimes. I went fishing a while ago, and caught a tuna (I think you can probably gather how exciting my holidays are...). We did go and visit some interesting ruins at Pompeii a while ago. _

_ Merlin, I wish your dad had let you come out here this year, although your family trip to Norway sounds fun (although I guess you had to put up with Rose and James). Anyway, if you're back in London before me, would you be able to buy me some quills and paper at some point, I'll pay you back at school, but I don't think that I'll get a chance to go down Diagon Alley before I go back to school since Mother sent the elf to get my books a few days ago, and I forgot to tell it. Thanks. _

_ Anyway, I hope to see you soon (only a week left of the holidays). _

_Your friend, _

_Michael _

–/

The rest of the family had gone to the zoo, but Albus had refused to visit it for the hundredth time in his life, and so was in the house alone. Aside from Kreacher, but the elf would not disturb him. The lights in his room were off, and the only source of light flooding in was from the window. The summer heat had descended upon the house, and Albus lay on his bed, unmoving. The heat had got to him, but he also felt too lazy to even be bothered to move. Until he remembered what he had to do before he left for school.

He rolled over, and pushed himself up and then clambered off the high bed. The wooden floor creaked underneath him as he padded across the room, and up the stairs until he reached the attic of the house. As quietly as he could he waved his wand in the direction of the hatch, and wooden floor boards from the floor floated into the air, and arranged themselves into steps, he leaned over the bannister to check to make sure that there was no one there and then walked up the newly made stairs, he reached the top, and with another wave of his wand the stairs disappeared and the hatch closed. It took him a moment to find the candle he had left last time he had been in the attic, and he lit it with the matches in his pocket soon after. The light illuminated the wooden floors, and objects surrounding him. Most were covered in white sheets, and he could make the furniture beneath them.

This was the last outpost of the Blacks, here were their old treasures and books. Ever since he had discovered this place, with the unknowing help of Kreacher who had stored all the old objects up here, he had been fascinated. But now he needed to find a few things. The candle flickered slightly as he walked, casting shadows in corners, and he had to stop for a moment to make sure that there was not another person with him in the small room. Steeling himself he moved over to the far corner of the attic, towards an old book shelf and trunk, and moved the candle and his face closer towards the shelf. He looked at a list he had written on his hand, and pulled out the relevant books, he did not want them for the Dark Arts they contained, but rather for the protective spells, that weren't entirely legal, but hardly dangerous. Slowly he placed the candle and holder on top of the shelf and quickly scanned through the books, just to check they were the right ones.

Satisfied he picked up the candle again and moved towards the trunk, he had finally found the key after months of looking underneath the floorboard in his room. The trunk was a dark green and had R.A.B. written on the top of it. He slid the key in and turned it, there was a click and the top of the trunk rose up slowly, with one hand holding the candle and the other on the top of the lid, he pushed it up and peered inside. The trunk was almost full, and the smell of mould and decay hit him suddenly. There were books haphazardly strewn on old robes and Hogwarts uniform. But resting on the top of all of that there was a wand, he pushed the lid farther backwards and let go and tentatively he moved his hand towards the wand and picked it up. Nothing happened, so he gave it a wave and a shower of sparks escaped the wand. Comparing it with his own, he saw that it looked remarkably similar and he pocketed the object.

Interested in the rest of the trunk now, he pulled out the books noting that they were Seventh Years books and piled them neatly next to the trunk. Next to come out was the clothing, and he saw that most of it was Hogwarts uniform, but there was also a robe with the Black family crest on. The uniform looked different from what he wore, especially the jumpers and the robes. Whereas his uniform was pretty much all black and grey, with only green ribbing at the top of the grey jumper to distinguish him a Slytherin, so as to not show up house differences, the uniform he held was the opposite. He took the family robes, and a set of the old uniform and separated them from the rest of the clothes and placed them on the floor next to him, before taking the rest of the clothes out and dumping them by the books. Underneath the mess there were assorted collections of items: novels, posters, little trinkets, letters and cards, mouldy owl food, and more. A shiny silver pocket watch stood out of the mess and he pulled it out, and placed it by the books he had taken from the shelf.

The letters had been tied together with a piece of strings, and pulled out the yellowing paper envelopes and looked at who they had all been addressed to. In different handwriting, they all said the same name_ 'Regulus'_ . He put the letters in the pile where he had left the books and robes, and placed the rest of the things back into the trunk. His family would probably be home soon, and he felt weird rifling though a dead man's trunk. He gathered the robes, letters, pocket watch and jumper into his hands and realised that he would not be able to carry the candle this way. He placed the objects in his hands on the floor again and picked up the candle and took it to where the hatch was, he could vaguely make out the trunk and books from where he was standing, and walked back over and bent down to close the trunk, and lock it. After he did that he picked up the objects and went back to the source of light. He pulled out one of the wands from his pocket and waved it, opening up the hatch, and waited for the wood to arrange itself into stairs. Once they did, he began to walk down them, and blew out the candle casting the room into darkness before descending down the stairs.

–/

The hat shouted out 'Gryffindor!' after five seconds of being on Lily's head, and Albus felt a pang of sadness as his sister joyfully walked over to the cheering Gryffindor table. She had, thus far, not been corrupted by James' propaganda, but now she was in Gryffindor there was no saying what her ideas of him were going to be by the end of term. Her eyes drifted over to him, and he could see a flash of sadness go across them, but then she smiled at him and he grinned back and lifted up his empty glass slightly in a mock toast. He could see her give a giggle and then turn back to the rest of her house.

"Tough luck mate." Nott whispered to him as he thumped him on the back, in what was presumably a friendly gesture.

"It's fine." Augustus gave a smile and turned to Scorpius. Albus stared into the empty bottom of the glass as the sorting went on, and he had to hold back a tear. He didn't know why he felt so upset, but it just felt as if he was completely alone in the family now, because the rest of them had been compartmentalised into their perfect little box and he was sitting outside of it. Unless Hugo was sorted into Slytherin, but he highly doubted that, the little brat was a Gryffindor through and through. But that did not stop him from watching with enthusiasm as his younger cousin was sorted... Into Gryffindor.

–/

"Albus?"

"Yeah?"

"What is this?" Albus turned from his desk to where the voice was coming from and saw Michael standing by his bed, leafing though a book. Albus bent down slightly to se what book it was, and recognised the green cover immediately. In sliver writing on the spine of the book the title of the book could be made out, '_Foulest Magick', _Albus had to admit, the author hadn't been very creative when they named the book, but the contents were true to the name. "More importantly, where on earth did you get this?"

He pushed his chair backwards as he stood up and walked over to where the other boy was standing, smoothly he pulled the book out of his friend's hands and looked briefly at the page he had been looking at, it showed a man exploding from a spell, and closed it.

"Does it matter?"

"Yeah, a bit. Why do you have that book here?" Albus shrugged.

"I don't know. It has some pretty useful stuff in."

"Which is illegal."

"I got it from home." Michael raised an eyebrow.

"In Harry Potter's house?" He gave a sigh and nodded.

"We've got all the Black's old books stored upstairs." He paused and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, it's not as if I'm exactly using any of these, it was more for the protective hexes that I got them, but the other stuff is interesting."

"And illegal."

"Come on, I'm Harry Potter's son. What are they going to accuse me of?" Michael grimaced slightly and looked distastefully at the book.

"Albus, this isn't just a game, this is illegal, and it messes you up. Just look at my grandfather." Michael's grandfather _was_ in Azkaban for what he had done in the Second Wizarding War, but Albus simply gave a dismissive wave.

"I'm not about to start practising those spells. Honestly it's just for academic reasons." Again, Albus paused and fiddled with his hands, "I got it from the same place I got the old school uniform."

"The one McGonagall wanted to ban you from wearing?"

"Yeah that one."

"Why do you even wear it?" Albus gave another shrug.

"It looks different. And it's still technically school uniform." Michael did not reply, and then fixed his eyes back on the offending book.

"Albus I don't get why you have this here."

"I don't know. Merlin, it's just interesting, and it's hardly as if it's dangerous unless I go crazy and start trying to cast those kind of spe-" The door opened, and Scorpius and Augustus walked in, the two were laughing about something and Albus tried to subtly place the book back on his bed. The two paused, and looked at the other two boys strangely.

"Were we interrupting something?" Malfoy said, with an eyebrow raised.

"No. Nothing. We were just talking about something." Albus replied as he moved the sheets over the book, causing Malfoy's eyes to land on it.

"What's there?"

"Nothing." Inwardly Albus cursed, and he could see Michael slowly gulp.

"Oh come on Albus. What's there?" Nott spoke up and the dark haired boy moved towards where Albus was sitting.

"It's, it's his diary." Michael said just as Nott reached them, and Albus gave a nod. Unbeknownst to the other boys Scorpius had moved around to the other side of the bed and snatched the book from underneath the sheets before Albus could stop him.

"Sco-"

"Interesting diary you have." The blond haired boy said as he causally looked though the green covered book, and Albus muttered a curse as Augustus moved towards Scorpius. "Great illustrations," Scorpius muttered as he held up the book and showed a particularly gruesome moving picture of a witch being burnt, "where did you get this?"

"His house." Michael said before Albus could explain.

"Whatever, who am I to judge?" Scorpius said as he closed the book and dropped it onto the unmade bed.

"What is it?" Nott asked and Scorpius explained. Albus could see excitement flicker in the boy's grey eyes as he was told about the book, but the boy also looked slightly surprised.

"I mean, Albus I guess I could kind of expect. But er, Michael, I thought you found all of this stuff," he said as he motioned to the book, "'distasteful.'" He mimicked the well spoken boy's accent and he could see Michael sneer.

"_I _just found out about this. But as Scorpius just said, who am I to judge?" Augustus looked between Albus and Michael, and then focus his attention on Albus.

"Can I borrow it some time?" Slightly taken aback Albus stayed silent for a moment.

"Yeah." Nott nodded and then Albus added afterwards, "But if you get caught with it, it's not mine."

"I know."

"No seriously. I can't get caught with this, and I don't want anyone else's stupidity to get me caught." Nott nodded against seriously and then Michael interjected.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you _were_ the one who left it open on your bed." The green eyed boy gave a mock glare to Michael and then smiled.

"Well, it was a learning curve wasn't it."

–/

He could not believe his eyes when he read the Seeker try outs list (the previous Seeker had quit citing that she had to focus on her work, but it was probably because Slytherin could never seem to win a game), but some how- and he had no idea how- Malfoy had gained the Seeker position. A pang of annoyance seeped through him, but he swallowed his pride, smiled, and went to congratulate him.

–/

Although Albus had promised Michael- and himself- that he would never practise many of the offensive spells in the books he had found in the attic, the summer before his Fourth Year he found himself casting one of the spells with the spare wand he had got from the attic, out of morbid fascination, and from there it was a slippery slope.

–/

Albus stared at himself in the mirror, and ran a hand though his unwashed hair. His eyes looked sunken in, and his face gaunt. Hopefully it was not because of the spells he had been practicing over the Summer Holidays. He gave a grimace and walked out of the small loo onboard the train. The people around him looked at him, and then went back to whatever they were doing, but he could not help feeling a pang of paranoia as they did. It did not take him long to find his friends and they too looked up as he sat down.

"You look like hell by the way." Zambini said, without dilemma.

"Yeah. I've not been sleeping well." The girl stared at him for a while longer, and again Albus felt worried.

"Why? What happened over the summer?"

"Nothing really, we went to Italy for a while. Mum didn't let me go and see Avery, which pissed me off a bit. But er, that was it." He found himself fiddling with his hands, and forced himself to stop and leant back into his seat. "Where is he by the way?"

"No idea." Scorpius told him. The blond boy had one arm casually draped across the armrest on one side, and in the other he held a wand, which he was twirling around his fingers. Albus looked up as the door to the last carriage of the train opened and his brother stood in the doorway.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" The last carriage did not have compartments, and for some reasons the Slytherins had always sat there- Albus' dad had told him that it was the same in his day- and it was unlikely to see other houses wondering around near there. His brother looked around the carriage distastefully, until his eyes landed on Albus, and he walked with purpose towards him. There was some muttering from the other Slytherins, but James ignored it and stopped by Albus, who was causally looking at his nails. James was silent for a moment, and Albus then lifted his head up. "Yes?"

"Albus I need to speak to you." The black haired boy looked back and motioned for him to talk. "Not here." James gave a glance to the other Slytherins, and Albus could not help rolling his eyes.

"What is it then?" A hand grabbed his arm, and pulled him up harshly up, once he was standing Albus found himself being dragged out of the carriage and into an empty compartment. James sat down, and then motioned for Albus too as well. "That was a bit rude." He said offhandedly.

"You're a disgrace." The snide remark took Albus aback and he waited for a moment before he replied.

"Did you drag me in here just to say that?" James fixed him with a glare and readjusted the Prefect badge on his robe.

"No. I 'dragged' you in here because I overheard mum and dad talking."

"Big deal."

"It is actually. Albus, there's a new Death-Eater type organisation being set up, and they think Avery's dad is the leader." He processed the information quickly and then looked down at his nails and picked them.

"And I should care?" A cloud of anger passed over James' face, and his hand clenched.

"Yes. You should bloody care!" His eyes drifted from James and out the window to the passing scenery, James grabbed his hands and Albus' eyes moved back towards his brother. "Don't you even care?"

"Not really. I wouldn't think that Michael would get involved in it."

"You're in danger."

"No I'm not, if anything I am in the least danger possible out of the three of us." He pulled his hands from his brother's grasp, and stood. "If anything, you should be worried."

"Why?"

"I'm in Slytherin. I'm probably the last person they think about when they think of targets. And I'm friends with Michael. You however, are Mr Gryffindor Golden Boy, Prefect, and all around symbol of what they hate. You have a Muggleborn for a girlfriend etcetera etcetera..."

"What's wrong with having a Muggleborn for a girlfriend?" James asked, eyes narrowed.

"Nothing. I'm just saying that out of all the Potters I seem like the one who would sympathise with them most. I'm probably more in danger of being recruited than being attacked."

"And do you sympathise with them?"

"Even if I did, I would not join them." With that, Albus turned away from his brother and left the compartment, for a moment he stood and thought about the information he had just heard, before returning to his friends. He settled down by them and rested his elbows on the table.

"What was that about?" Nott asked, and he shook his head.

"Nothing really. He told me I was a disgrace, the usual." The others nodded sympathetically before the conversation moved towards more interesting topics.

–/

How he ached at this moment in time to cast a well aimed Twisting Curse at the brat that was insulting him, the Third Year Gryffindor had muttered 'coward' as he walked past, and it took everything in Albus not to use one of Dark curses he knew. Instead he turned, and focused his eyes on the short boy, slowly he moved towards the moving boy and grabbed him on his shoulder, spinning him around to face him.

"What did you just say?" The boy looked slightly scared at being caught out, but gulped and then spoke.

"Coward." Albus smiled at the slight shake he could detect in the boys voice.

"Am I?"

"Y-you're a Slytherin." Albus knew that the smile on his face was not kind, and he glared.

"And that makes me a coward?" A short bubble of laughter escaped his mouth and the students passing by him stopped. Among them he could see Rose, her eyes looked angry, and he gave her a sarcastic nod of acknowledgement. Turning his attention back to the Third Year. "You know. I would think that people might be able to get over these stupid house rivalries after all of these years. But it appears not." He pulled him hand away from the shoulder of the boy and then simply said, "Apologise then." The Gryffindor looked back at him defiantly, and Albus leaned closer to him, and whispered in his ear. "Apologise, otherwise I can assure you, your year might not be too good." The boy paled slightly, and gave the slightest nod.

"I-I'm sorry."

"And you'll never do it again?"

"Ye-" But the boy was interrupted by another voice.

"Oh, for goodness sake Albus!" He twisted around, and saw a girl with bright red hair coming towards him. "Ignore him Jenkins."

"How very kind of you Rose to butt in where you're not needed." And he added under his breath, "As per usual," He turned away from her, and back to Jenkins. "Come on Jenkons answer me."

"It's Jenkins."

"Lets not dally, otherwise my _favourite _cousin might get angry. And I wouldn't want to upset her." Quietly, and very quietly indeed, the small boy muttered out an agreement that he wouldn't do it again, until Albus stared at him for a moment longer, and Jenkins repeated himself slightly louder. Albus gave the boy and ironic hearty pat on his back and shooed him off. "Rosy. Wasn't he _so _lucky that you intervened. Going for Prefect next year then?"

"Fuck you, Albus." His green eyes glinted mischievously, and he smirked.

"That's incest Rose. I'm really not into that you know." The crowd of people had started dispersing, although some idiots still remained, and Albus looked at them. "Bugger off. Nothing to see here." There were some grumbles, but they went, and soon enough they were standing in an almost empty hall. Rose looked slightly red, but then simply rolled her eyes and walked off. "Rose Weasley. Saviour of Gryffindor!" He yelled after her retreating form, and sighed slightly, as there was not reaction, and walked off in the opposite direction.

–/

Albus lit his cigarette off Nott's and handed the other white and orange object back to the other boy, and settled back onto the glass of the back of Greenhouse No. 4, which conveniently hid them from teachers, as the nicotine rushed through him, making him feel dizzy. The wind blew harshly past them and a shiver ran through him. He turned to the boy next to him, who was staring at the moon.

"What are you thinking about?" Augustus shook his head, and took a puff of the cigarette he held in his hand, the grey smoke escaping his mouth elegantly.

"Nothing really." Albus gave a snort, and copied Augustus' action, enjoy the burn he felt in his throat.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"Would you judge me because I was casting dark spells?"

"Not really, why?" His hand moved up to his mouth and he inhaled again.

"Well. I was just thinking, why did Avery force me to promise him that I wouldn't cast any of the offensive spells in that book?" Nott shook his head, and shrugged.

"I don't know. I guess he doesn't want you to get in trouble." He turned to Albus. "Why, are you?"

"Not really. I've cast one or two of them twice." He was lying through his teeth of course, but it did not matter, not really, the matter was that he _had _broken Avery's trust.

"What did it feel like?"

"I don't know. There was this rush, incredible really, but nothing too massive. I mean, it's not like anything I've felt before, but it wasn't like I felt like I had to do them again. Nothing like what they teach in DADA." The other boy nodded and inhaled again.

"Yeah, I mean, they're hardly dangerous, I guess they're bad if you start actually casting them on people." A hollow laugh escaped Albus' mouth and he took a drag. "Listen, I don't judge you. My family wants me to stay away from them because of our reputation, but I've never listened to them anyway."

"I know."

–/

"But I don't understand Albus," Avery's hands were gripped tight around the banister of his bed, "why would you do this? Why would you even cast them?" Albus sat on his bed, his sheets were in a sprawl around him and he shook his head.

"I don't know! How did you even find out about this anyway?"

"Because I can bloody see!" Avery let go of the bannister and paced up and down a small distance. "You come back to school after the holidays and your hair is greasy, your eyes sunken and I can see it. You have this feeling about you." Albus remained silent during Avery's tirade, and he focused on the bits of dust caught in the light of the candles. "Your eyes just look so," he paused trying to find a word, "dark almost. There's a sort of... shadow across them."

"Why do you even care?"

"Because I've seen what they've done! All of my damned family has that shadow, and that feeling. Did you think I was stupid?" He stopped walking and raised one hand to his head and ran it through his hair, when he spoke again he was much quieter. "They change you, they'll take away any light or goodness in you and spit you out again a bitter and twisted person."

"I'm not even casting them on people!"

"Then why are you screwing around with them?"

"Just in case." He looked down and Michael did not reply for a moment.

"Do whatever you want to Albus, I'm not your parents." With that he turned on his heel and exited the small dormitory, and Albus felt an odd need to cry. He pulled the sheets tighter around him, and shuffled down the bed before lying down to continue his nap. Really, he just couldn't understand what was so bad about what he was doing. It was not as if he were attacking people, all it was was simple curiosity, and the spells he knew could come in handy one day. Slowly he closed his eyes and turned over onto his side before waving his hand and the drapes on his bed slid shut casting him into darkness.

–/

_Dear Dad, _

_I'm thinking of staying with Nott this holiday. Well actually, I'm not thinking of staying with him, I am. I know you're going to say that he's a bad influence or whatever, but really I don't particularly care. I know Mum won't mind, and I don't see the problem._

_Love,_

_Albus_

–/

Augustus' family was actually very nice, and the Easter holidays this year passed faster than ever. They had not spared any expense in accommodating him, and they did not seem to be torturing Muggleborns in their basement. Nevertheless Albus continued to write one line letters to his father confirming that he was still alive, and not abducted or whatever else his dad could think of happening to him whilst he was in the Notts' care.

To-day was the last day before they had to go back to school, and Augustus' father had let them go to Diagon Alley by themselves. The two boys were sat eating ice-creams in a cafe in the alley, and they were both silent for a while.

"I'm so glad that I could stay with you this holiday."

"Don't worry."

"No, but it's really been a relief. Avery had been on my back all term, and I couldn't face spending another holiday with James." Augustus gave an ironic smile, and licked the ice-cream he was holding.

"I get it. I'm glad though, it was fun." He leaned in slightly closer to Albus and then spoke. "Do you want to go and see Knockturn Alley?"

"Why? It's not that interesting down there."

"You've been there?"

"Yeah, once or twice. I used to sneak out of my house all of the time and try and see all of Wizarding London." Nott shook his head in disbelief.

"I have no idea how on earth you're a Potter. But anyway, you clearly weren't going to the right places." He grabbed Albus' hand and pulled him up as he stood. "Come on. Get your cloak and cover your face though, you look far too much like your father." Albus made a sour face at that comment, but complied and pulled his cloak over him and pushed up his hood. Both of them then walked out of the seating area of the cafe and moved up the alley before they found the little turning which led them down to Knockturn. Augustus led, and Albus went behind him, both fended off hags and other shady characters who were trying to offer them goods and they stopped in front of a shop named 'Borgin and Burkes'. "This is one of the coolest shops you'll ever see." Nott said before they stepped into the dark room. The shop was filled with all sorts of things, from skulls to decoy wands.

"How do you know about this place?"

"Everyone comes here." But Albus was too distracted to hear his answer, as he went off to inspect a stuffed phoenix, the bird looked as red as the real thing, and Albus was surprised when he touched it that it did not fly away. He jumped slightly when someone touched him on the shoulder, and he spun around. Standing behind him was an old man, with incredibly pale blue eyes and white hair, his skin looked as rough as leather, and Albus could guess that the man was ancient.

"Didn't you see the signs?" The man's voice sounded raspy, and Albus shook his head, only just noticing the 'Don't Touch' signs littered around the small shop.

"Sorry Mr Burke. I should have told him."

"Ah, young Mr Nott. How can I help you to-day?" The shopowner turned from Albus and focused his attention on the boy. "And who is your friend?"

"Oh. He's just a friend from school." The ancient man did not take that for an answer and quickly turned around and used his wand to push down the hood of Albus' cloak before he could stop him.

"Mr Potter, if I am correct?" Mute, Albus nodded and he swallowed slowly, suddenly aware of the saliva running down his throat. But the man simply chuckled. "I wonder what your father would say?"

"Don't scare off the customers Mr Burke." Another voice said, and man (who Albus assumed to be Borgin) came out of a door behind the counter, he too looked old but his eyes were darker and he had less of a foreboding feeling to him. The man then turned to look at him and Albus could see the surprise etched across his face. "Although I must admit this is rather interesting." Nott had remained silent throughout the entire conversation, but moved over to Albus and gave him a wink which seemed to say 'don't worry'. "What are you doing here then?"

"He's here with me." Finally Augustus spoke up, and Borgin relaxed.

"You're the rebellious one aren't you?" A jolt of surprise ran through him.

"Well, I hope that's not all I am known for." He said, turning the charm on. "But yes, I suppose I am."

"You're always welcome here then." The man smiled, and then continued. "But I am afraid that we're going out in a minute, so unless you are going to buy anything..."

"No, no. I don't think so." Albus nodded his head in agreement, and murmured a 'thank you' as they exited the shop. "It's quite cool isn't it?" Nott said, turning to him.

"Yeah. They're a bit scary though..."

"They're actually quite nice. I've known them all my life though. But come on, let's go and see the rest of this place before it gets dark."

–/

The night before Albus left to go back to school, he went to say his thanks to Nott's father in his study. The father and son looked very alike, rather like Albus and his dad, and so it was rather disconcerting in a way, after he had accepted Albus' thanks he turned and focused his eyes on him, and the atmosphere turned more serious.

"You know, you're not at all what I expected." Albus bit his lip, unsure whether to take the comment as a compliment or an insult. "I know you were sorted into Slytherin, but I still thought you'd be like your father. You're happy at home aren't you though?"

"Yeah, it's alright." He couldn't keep the slight tinge of dislike out of his voice but Nott's father did not seem to notice it.

"Well, listen, if you ever feel like it's a bit weird there, or they don't seem to understand you just come and stay with us for a while. Parents can sometimes get incredibly annoying, and from what Augustus tells me your siblings can be a bit of a nightmare."

"Thank you." Albus wasn't quite sure what to say, and so he remained silent and looked at the books on the shelves behind Augustus' father.

"But honestly, anytime, don't worry." He smiled, and Albus returned it with a smile of his own.

"I'll remember."

–/

Hogsmeade was nice in the summertime, it had an old fashioned feel to it, and the whole world seemed to be brighter to Albus to-day. He sat, with Augustus and Scorpius on the side of a grassy hill, drinking drinks that they had bought from a small shop nearby. Avery was of course, no where to be seen, but it did not really matter to Albus, as he hardly ever saw the boy anymore. Not after he had 'broken his trust'. He lay back, and rested his head on his cloak which had been bundled up into a make-shift pillow.

"You know, I wish moments like these would never end." Albus said as he watched the clouds pass along the blue sky.

"I know. As do I." Scorpius said, he too was in a similar position to Albus, while Augustus was sitting up, smoking a cigarette. A bush rustled behind them, and Albus quickly sat up and turned his head. He could make out a figure, and he called out.

"Who's there?" The voice that replied was the one he least wanted to hear.

"Just me, Albie." Albus suppressed a groan as his brother walked into sight, with two of his Gryffindor friends following behind. Augustus had stubbed out his cigarette as soon as he heard the noise, but the heady smell of smoke still lingered in the air. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing."

"What's that smell?" One of the boys behind James questioned, and Albus moved his eyes away from James, and down to the ground where he studied the yellowed grass.

"What does it matter to you?" The hostility was clear in Augustus' voice, and Albus swallowed, this might turn a bit problematic. Scorpius was still laying down, and James focused his attention onto him.

"God Albus, you're such a disappointment to the family, hanging around with Notts and Malfoys. You know they tried to kill dad during the war?"

"_They _weren't alive you idiot." He replied venomously. "Merlin James, why can't you just leave me alone? Don't you have exams or something to revise for?"

"What? And miss spending time with my little brother?" His hand twitched, and Albus reached for his wand, praying that he wouldn't have to use it. "No need to get defensive." James said, after he noticed Albus' move.

"Oh for fuck's sake, just piss off." Scorpius finally spoke, clearly annoyed at having his relaxation interrupted.

"That's no way to speak to your friend's elder brother." Albus' brother replied mockingly, and Scorpius shook his head.

"I _would _give you respect, but you're not worthy. Now get out of here, and just leave us in peace." But James had other ideas, and the brown haired boy shook his head.

"I think we'll stay actually." And he moved to sit down, as did his friends, while Albus and his friends made to stand up.

"Do you know what, I don't think I'm the disappointment James, it's rather the opposite you see, just think what dad would say, seeing you act like a complete dick."

–/

_Albus Potter: Dark horse of the Potter family?  
– By Daily Prophet Writer_

_Ever since our favourite hero's son was sorted into Slytherin, we've had suspicions about his middle son's moral compass. But apparently, rather than reviling his house, he has said to be seen wondering around with scions of rather shady families, including the Nott heir (pictured). There are also claims that he had got into a fight with the eldest Potter son and has been fighting constantly with his family. But we shall have to wait and see whethe-_

Albus abruptly stopped reading the newspaper, not wanting to read anymore of it's bile. The story was at the bottom of page four, but even so it made him want to walk into the Daily Prophet's offices and destroy the bloody place. Without hesitating he penned a letter to the newspaper.

–_/ _

_Sir, _

_I find myself quite alarmed by the accusations about me that this newspaper has written. At first sight, the article printed in yesterday's (the twenty-seventh of August), seems harmless and simply a piece written for the dark amusement of your readers, but I believe that this paper's staff has forgot the problems that it could cause me. I would like to strongly refute the claims that I have seriously wounded my brother, in fact it was simply a bit of play fighting that got out of hand, and it was I who was injured. Along with this, the accusations that I am a so called 'dark horse' are completely unfounded, and I must say that this is libel. Please print a full retraction of the article._

_Yours, _

_Albus Potter_

–_/ _

"I saw your letter to the Daily Prophet." Maria told him as he took some food from the tray in front of him. Albus' jaw tightened.

"I hate that bloody newspaper."

"But it's true isn't it?"

"Sort of. Not really. James and I don't fight, we simply don't talk anymore." A sigh escaped his mouth. "You know, I wish I were never born a Potter."

"Some would kill to be in your position."

"I know." He took a bite of the chicken on his plate, chewed, and swallowed it before he talked again. "But it doesn't mean that I have to like it."

"Fair enough."

"So what are your family like?" Maria gave a small laugh, and then spoke.

"Normal I suppose. Dad lives in Italy, my mum's dead- but you knew that- but I have a step-mother who is alright."

"Is that why you never go home in the holidays?"

"What?"

"Living in Italy?"

"No, not really, it's easy enough to get a train from Kings Cross, Platform 8 and ¼ takes you to the Continent you know, but I can't ever be bothered." Albus gave an understanding nod.

"I might stay at school this Christmas, I'm not sure though."

"Well if you do, I'll be here."

–/

_Albus, _

_Your Father and I saw with some consternation your letter to the Daily Prophet. As much as we agree with what is written in your letter, doing what you did will simply cause them to print more vitriol about you. Please do not do this again. _

_Mum_

–_/ _

Albus screwed up the letter his mother had sent him, before replying. He noted the simple 'mum' at the end and a bubble of sadness came through him. It appeared that it was not just James who was against him now.

–/

_Dear Mum, _

_I think that I am entitled to write letters to the Daily Prophet, if I so wish. _

_Albus_

–_/ _

Rose passed him in the halls and he gave a mock bow as she did.

"Oh! Hail mighty prefect." She turned to him and glared.

"Shut up." But Albus didn't, and sunk to his knees mock worshipping her. He was in a particularly pissed off mood, and Rose was the unlucky member of his family to have passed by him. "Why are you such an idiot?"

"Will you forgive me for my sins?"

"Albus just piss off."

"How's the boyfriend?" He got to his feet quickly, waiting for Rose's reply. She was going out with a particularly offending Gryffindor names Molblaster, who never failed to try and annoy Albus.

"None of your business." She paused, and then chuckled to herself. "Are you so interested in my love life because you don't have one of your own?"

"I don't have the time for one." Rose rose a ginger eyebrow. "You know, too busy being evil and Slytheriny. Cursing First Years and stuff, I mean, having a girlfriend would just take up too much of my time as President of the Dark Arts club."

"Sure." She said as she walked away, and Albus cursed himself for having even brought the subject up.

–/

If Albus had not taken a wrong turn while looking for books on the properties of wormwood, he would have never strolled into the 'Fiction' section of the library. If he had never done that he would have never taken out a book of fairy-tales. But most importantly, if had not read that book of fairy-tales, he would have never realised that one of them was not one at all.

–/

"You're staying here for Christmas?" James asked him, he had caught him just as he was exiting the Great Hall; Albus gave a mute nod in response to the question. "Why?"

"I just can't be bothered to go home." His brother rose an eyebrow.

"Whatever."

–/

Albus walked uneasily into the Great Hall, and looked at the single table in the middle, in the place of the usual four tables. Not quite sure what to do, he wondered towards the table and sat down next to a Ravenclaw in his year named Fallows. Silently he ate his meal, wondering when Maria would wake up and come and eat with him, since it was awkward sitting with these people in other houses.

"Yeah, I thought that France would do way better than they did." A Gryffindor Fourth-Year said, he was deep in conversation with the Ravenclaw next to Albus and suddenly a great burst of courage blossomed in him.

"Well not really. You did hear about what happened the quarter-final match?" The two of them looked at him curiously, and the table became quite awkward. What was he expecting in the first place? Them to become great friends with him? He shook his head and grabbed a piece of bread. "Don't worry." And they went back to ignoring him.

–/

Although he felt slightly sad at Christmas, when he received presents from some of the members of his family, but he pushed down the feelings of regret. It would have been annoying to stay at home for the holidays, what with James being as annoying as ever, and the entire extended Weasley family invading Grimmauld Place. At least at Hogwarts he and Maria could wonder into Hogsmeade when they wished, and just chill out.

–/

"What happened between you and Michael?" Maria questioned him one day.

"Nothing. We just... fell apart I suppose."

–/

Grimmauld Place was as he remembered it, and he shut the door quietly behind him.

"This is it. Home sweet home." Maria looked around the dingy house, and made an expression of disgust.

"You English. Everywhere in this country is so run down!"

"Oi. Don't insult us." Albus said, with a smile on his face. "Mum! Dad!" He shouted after he moved towards the base of the stairs.

"Albus!" His mother came down the stairs, with a smile on her face. It did not seem as if it were put on, but one could never be sure. The two of them had been staying with Augustus for the first part of the Easter holidays, and for the second part Albus was going home for the first time in around six months. Augustus was supposed to come, but something came up meaning that he couldn't. His mother moved towards him and gave a him a huge hug, squeezing him quite tightly, but it didn't feel real. After they had finished he turned towards the girl standing behind him.

"Maria, this is my mother" and then he spun, "and mum, this is my friend Maria." The introduction was awkward, but thankfully brief, and he took Maria by the hand to show her the rest of the house.

–/

"You remember the story of the the three Hallows?" He asked Nott, as they sat behind Greenhouse No. 4.

"Yeah."

"What if it were real?"

"It isn't." Albus smirked, and took a puff from his cigarette.

"But what if it were?"

"I don't know. It'd be cool?" He blew out the smoke, and then lowered his voice slightly.

"You know how they told us that the Dark Lord's wand, the one that he stole, wasn't really the Elder Wand, that it was just a very powerful wand. How my father snapped it?"

"Yeah." Augustus leaned forward slightly and Albus continued.

"That's a lie. I know where the Cloak is, the Resurrection Stone is somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and as for the Elder Wand, surely it could not be destroyed by something as simple as snapping it in half."

"But how do you know that it's true?"

"I remembered something my father told me a while ago. We used to get him to recite tales of the war to us, and one day he slipped up from the official Ministry version he had obviously concocted, I can't remember it was something like 'but of course Sirius and Dad were there'. Anyway, the Cloak has been passed through my family and I currently have it in my possession." Albus' green eyes flashed slightly, and a shiver passed through Nott as it did. "But imagine how much power I could have as the Master of Death? Imagine it. I could destroy the Ministry, I could bring the Dark Arts back to their proper place, I could create a whole new world where the sons and daughters of Death-Eaters weren't reviled for their parents sins. There could be a new world." A bolt of excitement went through Albus as he saw Augustus' growing interest, their cigarettes forgotten.

"But why are you telling me this?"

"Because I don't want to do this alone."

–/

"So you and Nott plan to become Dark Lords?" Scorpius was leaning against the side of one of the beds, facing Albus and Augustus.

"No. We don't want to become Dark Lords."

"Albus, you just said you want to bring the Dark Arts back to their proper place." He commented dryly.

"Yeah, but not like that. We just don't want them to be regarded as they are." Scorpius nodded, but didn't look convinced.

"And your theories about mudbloods?" Albus winced slightly at the use of the word, but then spoke.

"Well. Most of the changes to our world are because they don't like the way it is run. So maybe if they were educated slightly better about our world before Hogwarts, maybe then they wouldn't try to change this just because it wasn't 'modern' or whatever." He noticed Scorpius' interested expression and then continued. "I mean, think about our History of Magic class, all of the Muggleborns are consistently going on about how horrible wizards were to goblins, without seeing it from the other perspective. Or when we went on the trip to the Ministry, they were all muttering about how inefficient it was, but then that Muggleborn witch, Kirk or whatever, went and changed it all and now it takes years to achieve anything because they've put in automated systems. I don't mind Muggleborns, Merlin, my grandmother was one. But it's just that they need to understand things from our perspective as well, they do a Muggle-Studies class for us, but they don't do a Wizard-Studies class for them." The blond boy gave a nod.

"I agree. But the whole mess with the Dark Lord means that it's practically impossible to get anything done about all of this. The moment anyone says anything like that they're denounced as a Death-Eater." A wide smile erupted on Albus' face.

"Ah." He paused for effect. "But we have something they don't."

–/

It had been gnawing at him for days, perhaps it was because he hadn't had a cigarette since the end of the Summer term, or the fact that James had accused him of becoming a Death-Eater but one night, at supper, he couldn't stand it anymore. His father had tried to defuse the situation, but it seemed as if both his mother and James were ganging up on him because of the fact that there had been an attack on a muggle village the night before and both the elder Nott and Avery had been implicated in the attack.

"They're Death-Eaters, Albus!" James shouted across the table.

"The Dark Lord is dead James." He replied quietly, before noticing his slip up. He had picked up the habit of referring to Voldemort as the Dark Lord from his friends, although he had no admiration for the man. But James had picked up the mistake.

"The Dark Lord?" James laughed hollowly. "Who calls Voldemort that? Unless..." He had trailed off, the implication clear. The candles flickered slightly, and there was a moment of silence at the table, Lily sat looking at her hands, while his mother glared at him slightly.

"James, I'm sure he didn't mean it like that." His father said after a moment, but Albus couldn't stop the anger bubbling up in him.

"What are you accusing me of?" Green eyes flashed slightly, and it took everything in him to stop himself launching across the table at James. "That I'm a Death-Eater? That I admire Him?"

"Yes." His brother said firmly and Albus felt his eyes grow wet with frustration.

"Fuck you." James stood up quickly, causing his chair to fall to the floor. Albus remained seated in his place, but his hands were shaking with anger and he held his knife in his hand.

"You are nothing but a Death-Eater. The moment you were sorted into Slytherin I knew that you were evil!"

"James, sit down!" His father shouted across the table, but he ignore him. Albus smiled sardonically.

"There's no point dad. He's too pig-headed to listen to you. But I understand, I never fitted in to this family after I was sorted. It never matter to you, or Lily, but to mum and James..." His mother tried to protest, but he talked over her. "I don't hold it against you, I don't. Frankly I don't care anymore. I have friends, and do you know what they're far better than family." Slowly he rose to his feet, and he lay down the napkin that was in his lap on the table. "I'll soon be out of your hair, don't worry, but I just have to do this, and Merlin, I've been wanting to do this for a long time." And with that, he punched James square in the face, his mother shrieked, and James gathered himself but not quickly enough to punch Albus who had already walked out of the room. As fast as possible he ran up the stairs, shoved his most precious belongings into his trunk, spelled it weightless with his spare wand and shrunk it before shoving it into his pocket. "Kreacher!" He called hastily, he could already hear James coming up the stairs, and so he flicked his wand and his door shut and locked. There was a pop and the house-elf appeared in the room.

"Yes Master Albus."

"Collect the rest of my belongings and send them to me when you can."

"Of course." He could hear James banging on his door, and Mrs Black screaming in the hallway. It was all utter chaos, but he faced the facts and pulled open the door. His father had come up the stairs and cast a spell at James which caused him to freeze and Albus smiled; walked out the door and trotted down the stairs. His mother was at the bottom, while his father was behind him.

"I can't say I'll be sad to say goodbye mum," but he gave her a hug nevertheless, "bye dad," he said without turning and blew a kiss to Lily and mouthed sorry, "and James," he said as he turned his head, "I'll repeat myself. Fuck you." With that he strolled to the front door, and like Sirius Black many years before him, opened it without looking back and walked out into the pouring rain.

END OF PART ONE


	2. Chapter 2

**To, um, all my two fans out there, this is the next instalment of the story (clearly). I may write a sequel to this, but to be honest, I just wanted to finish it before I went back to school, and I think that it had reached its natural ending point. Also, some of it isn't looked over, simply because my document writer has kind of messed up, and can't change anything, without it deleting the words after it (it's hard to explain). Anyway, I hope this wasn't too much of a disappointment, but I would love it if you guys reviewed. Even if it's 'I hate it, the story is awful.' Still means something to me haha... No but seriously, PLEASE REVIEW, and enjoy.**

INFAMY: PART TWO

Albus had rarely gone to Scorpius' house, but it was easy to find due to the fact that it was right above _Flourish and Blots_. But by the time he had made it to Diagon Alley, gone through the Leaky Caldron and found the shop he was soaked through and through and water dripped from his dark hair as he made his way towards the side door which let one into the Malfoy household. He knocked once with the snake shaped knocker, and waited for a while, the rain still falling on his body. After a minute or so he heard a loud pop and the black door was opened up by a sleepy looking House-Elf. He spoke before the small creature could.

"I'm looking for Scorpius please. Could you get him?" His body was shaking from a mix of coldness and adrenalin, and the House-Elf took in his bedraggled state before nodding shortly and disappearing to find Scorpius. When the boy in question finally arrived he was wearing a dressing gown, and his hair was messed up in contrast to its normally impeccable state. It took a moment for Scorpius to recognise who was at his door, with the wet hair and darkness.

"Albus?" He questioned.

"Scorpius, I need your help." The boy fixed him with a questioning gaze, and Albus garbled on. "I just ran away from home and I need somewhere to stay. Just until I can get some money out of Gringott's and then I can get a room at the Leaky Caldron. I would have gone to Augustus' bu-"

"But they're searching it?"

"Yes. And I do-"

"Albus. Calm down. You can stay for as long as you want, just don't make too much noise, my parents are already in bed." Scorpius pulled open the door slightly more, and Albus took a step inside, grateful to be out of the rain. "Bitsy," he called, and the House-Elf reappeared. "Take this cloak and give it a wash, and hang it up at the bottom of the stairs once you're done." He said after Albus had taken off his cloak, and Scorpius handed the soaking garment to the House-Elf. Briefly Albus took in his surroundings, before they marched up the dark staircase, towards the landing. The wooden boards creaked underneath their feet with ever step they took, and so it was no surprise that Draco Malfoy appeared out one of the rooms, he too was wearing a dressing grown, and he gave a curious look to Scorpius before he realised that Albus was there too.

"What is he doing here?" He asked, a slight sneer visible on his lips.

"Albus is going to be staying with me for a little while."

"Why?"

"He got into some trouble at home." Scorpius said, without explanation.

"We don't need his family sniffing around here." Draco practically hissed, anger clearly visible in his grey eyes, the two glared at each other for a moment, before Albus interrupted.

"I won't be here for long. I just need a place to stay before I can get my money from the bank, I'll be gone by Monday." Considering that the day was Saturday Draco's reaction was actually a mild one, the man screwed his face up for a moment, but then relented.

"Fine. What did you do anyway?"

"Nothing. My brother accused me of being a Death-Eater, I reacted badly." A snort escaped his friend's mouth and he continued. "I admit that it was a slight over reaction, but I couldn't stop myself. I may have simplified it slightly as well." Scorpius' father looked slightly surprised at the reason for Albus being in his hallway, half-soaked, at midnight, but accepted it and turned to his son.

"He can stay in the other guest room, your Grandfather is staying in the normal one." Scorpius gave a curt nod, and the pair bid Draco goodnight before going up the stairs.

–/

For a moment, when Albus awoke, he was unsure of his surroundings, but quickly remembered the events of the night before sitting up in the small bed. The room he was in was plain, the shelves bare and the floor uncarpeted, it was obvious to Albus that the Malfoy's rarely had guests. Quickly he pulled himself out of bed, and looked into his trunk which he had unshrunk, he pulled out some clothes and got dressed hastily before making his way downstairs. Tears welled up slightly in his eyes as he trotted down the stairs, the thought of what he'd done the night before hitting him. There was no going back now, his pride would not allow it. The kitchen was just beside the elder Malfoy's bedroom, and he glanced nervously inside. There was an old man with long blond hair sitting at the table, with a mug of tea in his hand and the Daily Prophet covering much of his face. On the front page there was a story about the muggle village that had been attacked, and a picture of a moving snake projected onto the clouds above a burning house. He moved as quietly as he could and tried to check if Scorpius was sat inside the room. But there was no one else seated around the round wooden table, he tried to exit, but clearly he had not been quiet enough and the blond man folded down the newspaper and fixed him with an unmoving stair.

"Ah," he said in a well-spoken accent, "Draco told me that we had guests." Albus gave an almost comical gulp, noting sadly how low he had now sunk as he was now seemingly associating with Voldemort's right hand man. "Mr Potter I assume?" He asked and then his expression darkened, "Well don't just stand there, you _can_ sit down." Slowly he moved towards the empty chair and sat down, not sure what to do. "Bitsy!" He called out, and the House-Elf appeared with a pop. "What do you want then?" Mr Malfoy said after a moment of silence. When Albus spoke, he had to stop his voice shaking slightly from fear.

"Um, some tea would be great." He said addressing the small House-Elf, "And some, er, toast?"

"Would you like any jam on that?"

"Yeah, er, strawberry and butter." The House-Elf nodded, and moved towards the toaster at the side of the kitchen.

"So why are you here? My son was not forthcoming on the details." The Malfoy Patriarch asked.

"I needed a place to stay."

"And why is that?"

"I ran away from home." He replied simply, but Mr Malfoy waited for him to elaborate. "My brother called me a Death Eater." Seeing Mr Malfoy's bemused expression, he paused for a moment and then continued, "I know that sounds like a pretty petty reason for leaving my home, but it was just a culmination of things." Albus had relaxed slightly, and leaned further back into his chair.

"So you're not just here to spy on us then?"

"What?"

"My son thought that that was why you were here. After the attacks and everything."

"Spying for whom?" Malfoy smirked.

"That is the question isn't it." Albus cursed his family name, of course his friends' families would think that.

"It would have to be a pretty extended spying mission, starting with me getting into Slytherin five years ago."

"You never know." A bark of laughter escaped Albus' mouth, and turned to the plate of toast that had been laid in front of him and he spread the jam and butter across his toast with careful precision, before cutting it into two halves and making it into a sandwich. Bitsy had also placed an empty mug in front of him and he took the milk from the centre of the table and poured a small amount in, before pouring the tea from the pot. The tea filled it up almost to the brim, and milk swirled around for a moment, but he took a tea spoon and stirred it. The room had descended into silence, and once he had finished preparing his breakfast there was nothing to distract from that. Then Mr Malfoy resumed the interrogation.

"But why here? By all accounts you're not such good friends with my grandson." Slightly put off by how much knowledge the man had about him, Albus took a moment to respond.

"I did not think that the Notts would much appreciate me staying with them at the moment." The blond man made a noise, and Albus hoped he would accept his explanation without much more questioning.

"I suppose."

–/

Sunday passed quickly, and soon enough it was Monday, and Albus headed towards Gringott's to withdraw all of his money from the bank, before his father or mother could stop him. Luckily he had been entrusted the key to his account a few years ago, and at six-thirty in the morning he was the only the figure making his way down Diagon Alley. He passed through the doors to the bank at exactly seven o'clock, and went to one of the goblins on duty. The small creature peered at Albus through its glasses as he asked to withdraw the entire contents of his account, but accepted the key, and passed him a bag to store his gold in.

The account he had did not have much gold in it, but it was enough to allow him to live comfortably, and he shovelled the gold into the bottomless-bag, and before he knew it he was riding on the cart back to the top of the bank. He strode through the doors and out of the bank and down Diagon Alley, to the tavern at the end of the street. His heart was pounding, and adrenalin rushed through him. For a moment he thought that his mother or father had already sent the letter to the bank, or that they would come into the place whilst he was there. At the Leaky Caldron he asked the barkeeper for the cheapest room, and the room he was given was certainly the cheapest.

It was bare, there was a four-poster bed in the middle which looked like it would collapse in the middle of the night, and there was a wooden desk at the end. Other than a small fire-place in the corner those were the two features of the room. Sighing he un-shrunk his trunk, muttered a quick prayer that underage magic wouldn't be detected in the tavern and waved his wand again. The objects in his trunk floated out, and arranged themselves into the right positions, or so he hoped, although he'd probably be finding socks in his toiletries or something like that. He grimaced and moved towards the bed in the centre of the room and lay down on it and thought.

–/-

When he saw Augustus on the train on the way back to school he was greeted with a worried expression. This really wasn't what he needed, he had already been accosted by his father and mother at the station who had pleaded with him to come back home, while James stood by them and glared at him, and he now had a headache. He leant against one of the armrests and beckoned the boy to come closer to him.

"Let's just cut the crap and you tell me what has happened." The boy stared at him slightly shocked, but then spoke.

"You know how you lent me that book?"

"Yes,"

"It was confiscated by the aurors." Albus' heart beat slightly faster at the news, he hoped it hadn't been traced back to him.

"What did you tell them?"

"Nothing. My entire house was full of it, and it wasn't in my room anyway," Albus rose an eyebrow at this, but let Augustus continue, "I'm sorry." Relived that that was all that happened he gave a shrug.

"As long as it's not traced back to me, then I am fine. It's okay anyway, I got some new books over the holidays." Augustus gave him a questioning look and then spoke.

"Did your parents give you some freedom then?"

"I ran away. It's a long story."

"There's plenty of time."

"Just leave it, I'll tell it another time. I didn't tell you before because I knew that they'd probably be intercepting your communication, and no offence mate, but I really can't afford to be caught up in all of your family's crap. What happened with all of that anyway?" Augustus' expression turned to one of sadness for a moment, but it quickly blanked over.

"My father's probably being sent to prison for the stuff that was found in his house. They couldn't pin the other stuff on him, but the books and objects are enough for at least a five year sentence."

"Was the Minister not able to be persuaded?"

"It doesn't work like that anymore."

"I'm sorry by the way."

"Don't worry, he had it coming." Perturbed by the events which had taken place, Albus remained silent, the wizarding world was clearly becoming less corrupt.

"Wait, there was nothing in the Prophet about their trials."

"They haven't happened yet, but my mother managed to keep it all out of the papers for now." Their conversation lulled, and soon enough Albus found himself falling asleep.

–/-

_The Death Eaters rise again?_

_The trials of Nott and Avery begin in ernest after a backlog in trials over the summer. The two men stand accused of keeping objects and books of the Dark Arts in their houses. Their names are well known because they were implicated as being Death Eaters after the Second Wizarding War, but it seems as if they did not learn from their ways, and both men stand to have five years at least in prison. 'There are claims that they were involved in the attacks in the summer, in fact most people at the Ministry believe the orchestrated the whole attack, but no one is talking, so this is what we have to get them on.' A source at the Ministry said to-day, leading some to question whether we are returning back to the days where some families could by the Minister off. _

–/-

"Death Eater." Someone muttered as Augustus and Albus passed by them, the comment wasn't aimed at Albus, but the feeling of anger still overcame him when it was aimed at one of his friends. For a moment he thought of turning around and hitting the idiot who had said that, but Augustus laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll get them back. It was probably only a Mudblood anyway." Albus winced at the term, but ignored it otherwise and gave silent nod.

–/-

A fist swung into his face and the force of it nearly pushed Albus into the wall behind him but he had pushed his hand back towards the wall, which averted a collision. Slowly he brought his hand up to his face and felt something wet, he inspected the hand and saw the red blood on it.

"So we're fighting like muggles then?" He addressed the question to the boys stood in front of him.

"What's wrong with muggles?" One of them asked, it was Molblaster, it was always fucking Molblaster, the boy was still going out with Rose which meant that it was slightly more difficult to maim or seriously injure him, since she'd probably go and tell his family and he'd get another howler.

"Nothing, it just seems slightly," he paused in mock thought, "uncivilised." The three boys in front of him tensed and he could see the fist coming towards him, thinking quickly he ducked which caused one of the other boys to plant their fist straight into the wall beside him. He was about to cast a spell but someone had beat him to it, and before he could say 'Levicorpus' the three boys were floating in the air, one clearly in pain from his hand. Augustus stood behind them with his wand pointed up into the air.

"Are they causing you trouble Albus?" Albus gave a chuckle and ran a hand through his sweaty hair.

"You came just in time there." He pushed himself up from the wall and walked towards his friend, the three other boys were struggling in the air above him. One tried to reach down and grab him from above, but before he could Albus launched a stinging hex towards him and the boy recoiled his hand in pain.

"Did your boyfriend have to come and save you Potter?" Molblaster asked from the air, clearly not seeing that he had lost in this fight.

"I don't think you're particularly in the position to taunt me right now." Molblaster remained silent but the another boy, who had tried to grab him, spoke up.

"You're a traitor to your family. Rose told us how you ran away. Typical cowardly Slytherin." Green eyes focus on that particular boy, and he finally recognised him as a muggle-born Gryffindor who was in his year. Anger coursed through Albus' veins and he tried to stop himself saying something which would incriminate him, or worse do something that would incriminate him. However, Nott beat him to it.

"I'd hardly say that Albus is a traitor." A smirk slid onto Nott's face as he waited for the implications of what he had said hit the boys, but they didn't seem to realise, given the fact that they were scrunching up their faces in confusion, hoping to clear it up he spoke again. "But Molblaster, well he's a traitor." It hit Molblaster first, he began to splutter and look indignant.

"You are all fucked up. All of you." Albus ignored the comment from one of the boys and turned to his friend.

"What do you say, should we leave them there?" Augustus waited for a moment before replying in mock consideration.

"Well since they've been so horrible to us over the past few weeks, maybe we should."

"They did call you a Death Eater."

"And they have tried to beat us up quite a few times, but I'd prefer to give them some mercy. Then maybe they'd learn to respect us as they should." Albus gave a shrug and the other boy flicked his wand and they came crashing down onto the hard stone floor, one of them- Albus could not discern who- gave a loud groan and another muttered an expletive. Molblaster was the first who tried to get up and Albus quickly sent one of the hexes in his extensive knowledge towards him. As soon as it hit him it pushed him back towards the floor and his whole body glowed for a second with a bright light, causing a far amount of pain to course through the boy, he gave a yelp but remained on the floor. Quickly, Albus walked towards the people on the floor.

"Listen I want you to leave us alone, otherwise I can assure you that we won't be so kind next time one of you lot try to attack one of us. We've not done anything to any of you and I'll also make sure that you are expelled." The muggle-born boy who had tried to grab him earlier spoke.

"They'd never believe a bunch of Slytherin's over us."

"They'd never believe a random muggle-born over Harry Potter's son." Albus quickly retorted. "Now, get the fuck out of my life before I have to look at any of you anymore."

–/-

His birthday this year was a solemn and lonely occasion, although it did make the day when he could finally legally practise magic outside of school. This didn't make much of a difference since he had decided to stay in school for the Christmas holidays, half because he didn't want some awkward family re-union on the platform when he got off the train. He did get presents from his friends, and also from Lily who clearly still liked him for what ever reason. She said that James might be planning to do something to him at the beginning of the next term in her letter to him. One other present that arrived, that confused him slightly, was a sliver watch, the present had no letter with it, and the sender did not identify themselves. He had put the watch on his wrist, but he did want to find out who had sent it.

Maria had stayed at school, which meant that he didn't spend his birthday entirely alone, but for a moment he wished that he could be with his family like he usually was. He would go downstairs in the morning and see presents by the dying Christmas-tree and then there would be birthday cake and perhaps a trip to Diagon Alley. But then he remembered what a dick James usually was, and that ruined his nostalgia.

–/-

The snow fell on the night the day before the rest of the school was supposed to return for the holidays, and when he awoke the next morning, every outdoor surface had been coated with a covering of snow. But it was not the snow which made the day memorable, it was the day he finally had the confrontation with James. He sat in his usual seat at the Slytherin table, waiting for supper to finish before he could return to his dorm with Augustus and see whether the objects he had requested the previous term had been bought over the holidays. James had been glaring at him from across the room since the beginning of dinner, and he could feel James' eyes on his back and he left the dining hall, after becoming annoyed at the length of meal. Leaving early had meant that he was entirely alone, and he walked slowly down the stone halls. Suddenly he heard hurried footsteps behind him, and he was pretty sure as to who was making them, he stopped abruptly and spun around. He could make out the figure of James, with his ginger hair and tall body, immediately.

"So you've finally decided to talk to me?" His heart pounded inside his ears, the ramifications of what he had done in the summer finally hitting him, as his brother moved towards him. James stopped about two metres away from him, clearly nervous as well.

"I don't _want _to talk to a traitor like you. I have to."

"You don't have to do anything." James stiffened slightly, and Albus could see that his comments were riling him up.

"You've torn our family apart."

"You're not my family. Frankly I couldn't care less about what happened to all of you." Of course this wasn't true, but it was for the better, soon they wouldn't want to be related to him.

"But Alb-" Albus cut him off before he could finish what he was saying.

"No. I don't have to listen to your crap anymore, yeah, so what I hang out with Notts and Malfoys, yes I was sorted into Slytherin. But really what was I supposed to do, I am a member of a house where, to be honest, the only friends you can make are in it. And do you know what, I am glad, they're my friends, they've helped me more that you ever have, they've been better to me than you ever have, and they are the kind of people that I want to associate with. I can do so if I bloody well wish to." Without waiting for James' reply Albus turned from his brother and continued down the long hall, ignoring the cries from his brother.

–/-

"Albus, do you really know where this bloody stone is?" Scorpius asked him as he tripped over a tree root.

"It should be here, it was a clearing, that's what it said in the books." Sighing briefly, he held out his wand, which was currently illuminating his surroundings. _"Accio Resurrection Stone._"

"Please tell me you are taking the piss, ther-" Scorpius stopped and turned to look behind him, something had just come out of the ground and hit him on the back of the head, Albus strolled over, and removed the floating ring from the air and smirked at his friend.

"Well, the Elder Wand should be easy enough to find."

–/-

It was incredible how easy it was to find the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone, using '_accio_' was far too simple in his eyes, and he imagined having to go on some epic expedition, in a manner similar to his father, or at least having to cast a little more magic. But something was wrong, when Albus had tried to use the wand, it didn't respond correctly and he was confused as to why. He knew he was forgetting something, something important, and he sat in the Slytherin Common Room, in one of the arm chairs, pondering this question. He had gained the wand, but why did it still not belong to him?

–/-

When the Summer Term finally arrived, it was with great relief to all of the students. The previous two terms had been plagued by bad weather, but the arrival of Summer was, at last, imminent. However, there were a few exceptions to this rule, Albus worried about his inability to solve the case of the Elder Wand and the arrival of the Summer Term meant that his Seventh Year at Hogwarts was that much closer, and that was the year when he couldn't afford to be distracted by his other activities. He lay back into the grass outside the castle and nevertheless enjoyed the hot weather, there were a few clouds in the otherwise clear sky, and he watched them as they drifted past, making out the different shapes. Within a few moments his eyes had closed, and his peaceful day-dreaming was interrupted by an unnerving feeling that someone was watching him. He opened his eyes slowly, and jumped when he saw a figure standing over him.

"Fuck, Maria, you scared me," he exclaimed once he made out who it was.

"The great Albus Potter scared?"

"Piss off," he said, the laughter apparent in his voice. Albus pushed himself up onto his elbows, as Maria sat down next to him.

"What do you have next?"

"DADA, you?"

"Care of Magical Creatures." She was looking at him funnily, and Albus cocked his head to one side.

"What is it?"

"Well, I heard a pretty funny rumour about you from the Ravenclaw who sits next to me in transfiguration." Maria was almost laughing, and he game a sigh.

"Yes?"

"She said you were gay," A bubble of laughter rose from his throat, and some of the people who were sitting near them looked at the pair curiously.

"Do they really have nothing better to do than make up stuff like that about me?" Albus said after their laughter died down.

"Look, I mean you've never had a girlfriend, and I am sure your older brother has plenty of time to make up rumours like that."

"That doesn't automatically make me gay, maybe I'm just not that bothered by dating at the moment."

"Yes, that brings me on to my other reason for coming here, what are you and Nott planning? I always see you two sitting in the Common Room discussing things." His heart beat slightly faster, whilst Maria was his friend, he wasn't prepared to let her in on what they were doing. The less people who knew the better, especially since Maria, for all her good qualities, could sometime let things slip. Realising that he had stayed silent for quite a while, Albus quickly tried to come up with a reason.

"Nothing." He said lamely, knowing that it was probably not going to convince her.

"Sure."

"Maybe he's my gay partner." Albus said, with a smile creeping back onto his face, and Maria smiled back too, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

–/-

On the way back from school that year Albus found himself reading the story of the Deathly Hallows in the book he had taken out from the library for the first time in about a year, maybe there could be a clue about how to solve the wand drama, Augustus was sitting opposite him and noticed Albus' face as it went completely pale.

"What is it?" With a shaking voice Albus told Augustus the way that the book claimed one had to gain ownership of the wand.

"O-ownership of the w-wand only transfers when the current owner of the wand dies." He swallowed once and placed the book, still opened, down onto the table in front of him before continuing. "Albus Dumbledore, who got the wand from Grindlewald, was killed by Serverus Snape, thus transferring ownership of the wand to him, then Voldemort killed Snape, meaning that ownership transferred to the Dark Lord, and then, of course, my father killed the Dark Lord, transferrin-" Albus couldn't finish the sentence, confronted by the real possibility of patricide. Nott stared at him for a moment, realising that something couldn't be right, there was something that Albus had missed out.

"Wait," he finally said, "Grindlewald was still alive for ages, he was kept in that prison, remember we got taught that in History of Magic, so it doesn't have to be transferred like that. Dumbledore and Grindlewald got into a fight, but then Dumbledore beat him, meaning that the wand changed allegiance. It's not killing which means that it changes allegiance, it's defeat which does."

"So that means that all I need to do to get full ownership, is to disarm my father?"

"Yes, pretty much."

"How the fuck do I do that?"

–/-

_Dear Augustus,_

_I have an idea._

_Albus_

–_/-_

A child screamed in the corner of the small ice cream shop the two boys sat in, and Albus looked back at it irritably, but leaned into the person sitting opposite him.

"Anyway, here's my idea, my father is an auror, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if say there was an attack on somewhere, or I don't know something big enough that would cause a guy who's high up in the Department to come to it, I could use the opportunity to attack him, disarm him, and get away from the place as soon as possible without him knowing." Augustus gave him a disbelieving look from across the table.

"That would be absolutely impossible, you'd have to duel one of the best duellers in the world and win, before you'd be able to do anything."

"It's our only option."

"And where are you going to find the event to be able to do this act then?" Albus' green eyes flickered with excitement and nervousness.

"Well, I know that your fathe-"

"Albus, he's been sent to gaol."

"I know, I know. But the organisation must still be around?" The baby had finally stopped wailing, and Augustus lowered his voice, so their conversation would not be overheard.

"I don't want to be involved in that Albus. It's probably teeming with spies, who would report back to the aurors that you had tried to join, and if you were caught, you would be sent straight to Azkaban without a chance of leaving school, and you wouldn't be able to perform magic for the rest of your life!" He finished his tirade, and Albus looked on thoughtfully.

"What about next year? What if we finished school, and then we tried to do it?"

"Not 'we', it's only going to be you joining." Darkness briefly flashed across Albus' eyes, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking.

"How on earth am I ever going to co-" He paused, bit his lip for a moment, and started talking again. "What if I didn't actually join them? What if I just went to where the attack was going to be, and then disarmed my father, but they wouldn't be able to prove that I was part of the organisation?"

"It's risky."

"We're going to have to take risks."

"You sound like a Gryffindor." He shot Augustus a dirty look, before returning to his line of thought.

"One of us has to join, I don't know, maybe Scorpius. Then he can tell us when an attack is happening, I'll go there, Scorpius can rat out the entire thing afterwards and escape from a life time of servitude."

"There's no way he'll join. You're grasping at straws." The two boys stopped talking for a moment, and Albus took a sip of the water that was in front of him.

"I'll figure it out."

–/-

_Felix Felcius, _he repeated the name in his head over and over again, that's what he needed to complete his quest for the hallows. But where could one find the semi-illegal potion for a cheap price. Although he was not terrible at potions, it would be unlikely that he would be able to make the potion himself, at least not without making a mixture that would probably poison him, or give him terribly bad luck, or something like that. He repeated the word one more time, this time out loud, and spud the coin in his hands on the desk in front of him. Some how he'd get his hands on that potion.

–/-

The Summer Holidays ended, without Albus being able to gain the potion, and he decided- with Scorpius and Augustus- to let the plan lie for the year, since they needed to gain some decent qualifications. And it was a relief really, for Albus, to not have James there, constantly hovering over him, reporting back his actions to his parents. But the question of the potion played on his mind, and he wondered whether his plans would ever come to fruition.

–/-

"Hey Mary, would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me?" Mary Carrow, who was of distant relation to the Carrows who had terrorised Hogwarts in the war years, was a pretty Slytherin girl in his year, and perhaps it was his distance from his plans that made him realise that there was a certain element of his life which was lacking. It was because of this, that Albus found himself walking down the path to Hogsmeade with the pretty dark haired girl, talking about the latest bands.

"So how come you never dated anyone before?" She asked, dark eyes peeking up from her eyelashes.

"I don't really know. I guess I just wasn't bothered." He gave a shallow laugh, and she took his hand.

"Are we going anywhere for lunch?"

"Yeah, I don't know where. I didn't think that you'd like Madame Puddifoot's, or what ever it's called, but I'm sure I can get a table there if you want."

"Um, no, that's fine. I don't really mind where. Maybe we could go to the Hog's Head or somewhere." Albus looked at her curiously.

"Sure." He held out his arm, "Lead the way then." She gave a shy laugh and they walked down the path to Hogsmeade together.

–/-

The fires burnt around Hogsmeade, and Mary and Albus were running from them, much like the other students around them. Men- and women- in masks stood around, throwing curses, and attempting to battle off the aurors who had recently arrived.

"Mary!" He shouted over the din of the battle and she turned to him.

"Let's go and hide, we're just going to be killed running though this," Albus stopped and she looked at him fearfully.

"Or we're going to be burnt alive in one of the houses." He was about to reply when he saw his father, standing in the middle of the fighting, seemingly un-affected, only a couple of metres away. His heart beat in his ears louder than it had been before, this was his chance. Quickly he flicked his wand, and shot a disarming spell at his father, the spell shot across the battle, a white light in a haze of red, he mumbled a quick prayer that it would hit. And it did, the wand flew out of his father's hand, and straight into his. Green eyes met their match, and his father ran towards them, his untouchability broken.

"Albus, what are you doing here?" Mary stood beside Albus, slightly in shock, looking at him with questioning eyes.

"I-I'm sorry, I was trying to disarm someone else, t-they had a wand and they were pointing it towards you!" Albus all but shouted and his father stared at him for a moment more, before remembering where he was.

"Get out of here Albus!" He said before pushing them away, Albus dropped the wand on the floor before he ran, all ideas of hiding in a house forgot. In the midst of adrenalin and fear he felt a silent satisfaction, the Elder Wand was his.

–/-

"Albus," he looked over to his girlfriend, and smiled before walking over to her.

"What do you want?" He said smiling, "I'm a busy person."

"I just want to spend some time with my boyfriend." Mary gave a shy smile and he leant down to kiss her chastely on the lips.

"Well I am afraid I have to go, I have some business to attend to." She nodded and he gave a small wave as he exited the Common Room and walked down the stairs towards the boys dorms. Scorpius and Augustus sat inside waiting, and their expressions changed as soon as he walked in. He explained what had happened a few weeks ago in Hogsmeade, and Scorpius tilted his head to the side.

"How did that even happen?"

"Good luck I suppose."

"But I just don't understand... It was that simple. Have you tried to combine them yet?"

"Yes, but it didn't work. I held them all in my hands and nothing happened." Augustus pushed himself of the bed he was sitting on, and moved towards Albus.

"Where are they?" Albus silently pointed to the trunk at the bottom of the bed. The other boy walked towards it and lifted up the top and searched inside for the items, once he found them he held them in his hands, the silky material of the Invisibility Cloak, the smooth surface of the Resurrection Stone, and the brittle wood of the Elder Wand.

"Give them to me." Augustus handed the three objects to him, and he held them in his hands. He could feel the power in them, just waiting to be unlocked. But he knew he had to wait. "There might be a ritual, I'll research it." They all looked at the objects with fascination. How a bunch of Seventh Years had managed to do what they had done he didn't know.

–/-

"I know what you're doing." Avery told Albus simply when he was sitting in the dorm alone one day.

"What?"

"You, Malfoy, and Nott. I know what you're doing." Albus felt his heart beat faster in his chest and he tried to keep cool as he turned to Avery with a smirk.

"And what would that be?"

"Trying to do what my father go put in prison for!" He all but shouted.

"Hardly." Avery and him had probably not had a conversation this long for months, and it felt odd to be talking to his former-friend.

"You'll end up just like them, Potter. Mark my words."

"Don't fucking presume what you don't know." Anger rose up through him, and clenched his fists into tight balls.

"I don't want to see that happen to you. What would your family think of you?"

"I couldn't care less." He paused. "And when it comes to it they're on the wrong side."

–/-

He had seen the red haired girl coming towards him before she had realised, and he was tempted to run away, but soon he realised that he needed to talk to his sister at some point. Slowly he placed his pen down onto the wooden table in front of him, and looked up again.

"Albus." She said simply.

"Yes." Her eyes looked wide and green, so similar to his, and he could see a sheen to them.

"Please come home. I hate you not being there."

"I can't Lily. I'm sorry," guilt washed though him, and he was momentarily unable to speak, "I-I wish I could, but there's too much going on for me."

"You just walked out! You just left me there!" She was almost shouting now, it was incredible how she could move from sadness to anger so quickly really.

"Lily-" he started.

"Don't Lily me! You should probably call me Potter, considering that you don't feel like you're part of the family anymore. Since you clearly wish you were a Malfoy or a Nott." He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Just listen to me Lily." He said in a calm voice, and she briefly looked at him with wide eyes for a moment before closing her mouth. "I wish I could. Honestly I do, but I can't. Ever since I was sorted into Slytherin, I feel as if there was a growing gap between me and the rest of you, I don't fit in." A tear fell from her eye, and she rose a hand up to wipe it away. "Don't cry. I'll be there when you need me. But I can't go back. I'm sorry." Wordlessly she nodded, and she walked away, and he felt as if something had broken inside him, that was his last chance. All could have been forgiven, he supposed. Now he was truly on his own.

–/-

His fist slammed into the wall with frustration. How he had managed to get to this point he was not sure, but his fucking DADA practical had screwed him over. The examiner had fucking disarmed him. How had that happened? It was going to completely mess up all of his plans, and now he was back to square one. He stood in the empty dungeon and thought. How was he going to sort this out? He walked out of the stone dungeon and up the stairs, he needed a cigarette. As he walked across to the entrance of the school he heard a particularly obnoxious voice boasting that he had managed to disarm the DADA examiner, he turned and followed the sound of the voice, and there stood Anthony Molblaster. A grimace passed over his face, of course it would be him who now had the ownership of the most powerful wand in the world.

–/-

It was odd really, he thought as he sat on the last Hogwarts Express he would ever take, it was over. School was over. He would never have to sit in a lesson again, or hand in homework, it was all over. And now he was out in the world. It left him with a dilemma, where was he going to live, how was he going to live? But also, how the fuck was he supposed to get the wand off the idiot that was Molblaster? He supposed he was just going to have to wait.

–/-

He wondered how long he was going to have to keep on doing this, researching to find out how on earth he was supposed to bind the hallows together to become Master of Death, so far he had spent at least a month reading over books from the public library on the Deathly Hallows, but his search was proving fruitless. A sign escaped his mouth and he closed the book he was looking at, it all seemed so pointless, it was probably just a myth anyway. Perhaps these years of planning were all for nothing.

–/-

His eyes were drawn to an inked in symbol on the inside of the latest book he had taken out from the library, it was a triangle, with a line, and a circle inside it. The symbol of the Deathly Hallows, but perhaps it was also something else, and finally, he had an idea.

–/-

"Albus, how long is this going to go on for? We've had so many-"

"Patience, that's all we need. I'll find a way to get the wand back." Augustus stood inside the small shop Albus owned on Knockturn Alley, it sold all manner of things, things that were perhaps not strictly legal, but business was good, and it gave him an opportunity to travel as well.

"It's gone on long enough! Every moment we waste, every time we decide to wait another day, is another day we could get caught." His hand ran through his dark hair, and Albus leaned onto the counter in front of him.

"Well, I can't bloody well go up to him and challenge him to a duel for no reason can I?" Albus flicked his wand and the sign proclaiming that the shop was open flipped around to saying that the shop was closed. Briefly Albus looked at one of the skulls that rested on the display, and did not say anything.

"Just kill him!"

"I may hate him, but I am not doing anything as stupid as that. I think he's engaged to my cousin anyway, and they're one of the most powerful families in the Wizarding World, I don't want to risk their wrath."

"What if you had a legitimate reason to duel him?"

"Like what?" Augustus' eyes lit up for a moment, and Albus found himself smiling. Finally, after weeks of nothing, they may be getting through the block.

–/-

"Fuck I feel like an idiot." A blonde woman said, as Albus linked hands with her.

"It's all for the cause Augustus. All for the cause."

"Fuck you." Albus gave a laugh, and the pair walked down the cobbled street together. The woman became unstable briefly, and cursed. "How women even walk in these things, I don't know." The dark haired man kept the woman stable, and paused for a moment to light up a cigarette, and inhaled deeply.

"So how long do we have?"

"Around an hour. The witch who sold this to me said two, but I am sure that's a lie."

"And you think he will be here?"

"Scorpius flooed me before we went and said he was already inside." The two stopped in front of small house, which had the word 'Orion's' over it in a neon sign, and Albus could hear the dance music from it inside.

"Okay. Do your best Augustus." He threw the cigarette to the pavement and walked inside nightclub.

–/-

"You hit on my girlfriend!" Albus shouted at Molblaster, hoping that he was giving a good enough show.

"I didn't, what are you talking about!"

"Well, why don't we settle this like men then." He was doing his best to act drunk, but internally cringed at the sentence had just said. Albus struggled to hear the answer above the blaring music, but was given one, when he saw Molblaster head for an exit. Smirking, he followed him through the crowd. Hopefully Molblaster was drunk, because for all his faults, the guy was pretty good at duelling, he headed through the door that the man had and he was greeted by the cold outdoors. They were standing at the back entrance in an alley, and the Molblaster peeled off the top layer of his dress robes, and Albus followed him.

"You don't know how long I have wanted to kick your ass now Potter, now there are none of your Death Eater friend around." Anger bubbled within Albus at that comment and before he could stop himself he sent a curse flying at the other man. He wasn't even sure what curse it was, but Molblaster gave a yelp of pain as it hit, and sunk to the ground briefly. Albus should have just disarmed him then and there, but he couldn't stop himself. This was the first time had had been in a duel for months, and bloodlust was signing though his veins. His usually bright green eyes clouded over with fury, and he sent another curse at the man, which he managed to block. "Not playing fair Potter. I would expect that." A curse came flying at Albus and he quickly dodged it, but he was not prepared for the second one which quickly followed, and he hissed as it cut into his robes. Swiftly he lifted his wand up and sent a volley of stinging hexes, intertwined with darker singeing and smashing curses towards Molblaster, but he already had a shield up. But that couldn't stop the curse that was coming next, "_crucio!_" He bellowed and the red curse flew out his wand, and smashed through the shield, Molblaster fell to the ground screaming, and it interrupted the strange feeling which had descended on Albus. Quickly he stopped the curse, and he felt a jolt of fear run through him, he disarmed the man and ran off, how had that just happened?

–/-

"I crucio-ed him Scorpius." He sat in a chair in the Malfoy's Living Room, and looked around at the portraits on the wall, they all looked at him back curiously. Their eyes looked as if they were inspecting him, looking into his very soul at the sins he had committed. Nervously, he looked back at the Malfoy heir.

"Why?"

"I don't know! I didn't mean to, this, this feeling came over me, and I wasn't quite aware of what I was really doing. It was just instinct."

"You're an idiot. He's going to tell the aurors."

"I know!"

"There's nothing any of us can do." Albus's teeth began to chatter, and he felt fear, real fear jolt though him.

"If they search my things, do you think they-" Scorpius cut into him, knowing what he was going to say.

"Where are they?"

"Back at my flat," he paused. "I'll send them over to you, keep them safe."

"I can't take any of the books."

"I understand."

"Albus," he called as the dark hair man got to the door, "my grandfather may know some people in the Ministry, who can get your sentence shortened." Albus turned, and gave a nod of thanks before he exited the room.

–/-

That night, when he went to sleep, Albus felt a strange kind of calm descend upon him, he was going to be arrested the next day. Even so, it took him a while to get to sleep, he tossed and turned in his small bed for at least an hour, smoking at intervals. His world was crashing down around him, and there was nothing he could do.

–/-

The knock at the door came at mid-day, he had sent the Hallows to Scorpius, given some of the books to Nott, but there were some things he couldn't give away, some things that not even Nott would take. He walked across his run down room, and towards the front door, grabbing a glass of firewhiskey on the way. The drink burnt in his throat, and although he still felt calm, his heart beat slightly faster as he opened the door. Four men in red robes stood at the door, aurors, the one at the front spoke.

"We have a warrant to search this house." Albus nodded mutely, he inspected the man for a moment, he had greying hair, a turned down mouth and a scar that ran all the way down his face. "Are you Albus Potter?" He recognised the man from when he was younger, when he would go and visit his father at work.

"Yes."

"You're under arrest, for the use of an Unforgivable." Not caring, he dropped the glass of firewhiskey he had been holding, letting it smash into the ground and turned his back to the aurors. One cast a spell, and he felt his wrists being bound, and then he was being led out of the door and down the stairs to Knockturn Alley.

–/-

The people in the alley stared at him, as two of the aurors escorted him down the street. He remembered that he hadn't told Mary what was going to happen to him, and in a way he was glad, she did not need to be brought into all of this. They walked slowly up to Diagon Alley, clearly the aurors wanted to parade him around, and this gave him time to hear the whispers.

"_Is that Harry Potter's son?_"

"_I never thought I'd see a sight like that._" A person took a picture on a camera they were holding, he looked up at the sky, it was a grey day, and the clouds were threatening to rain. Not a bad day to get arrested, by now they had reached the top of Knockturn Alley, one of the aurors grabbed his arm and suddenly his world was metaphorically and literally turned upside down.

–/-

"You know what I don't understand," one of the red robed aurors questioned as Albus was thrown into the gaol cell, "you had it all, family, money, friends, and you chose to throw it all away on this." A smile found itself onto Albus' face, and he stared at the woman.

"Maybe I wanted more."

–/-

"You are found guilty of possessing three illegal books, the use of four Level One Dark Curses, and one Unforgivable. How do you plead?" The courtroom was filled, his family was there, some of his friends, and others all sat in the circular room. The judge wore a white wig over hair, and he stared at it for a moment. "Well, how do you plead?" The dark haired man, with the green eyes, gave a sardonic smile, and gazed around the courtroom, catching the eye of his cousin Rose, his father, his mother, his brother as it moved across it.

"Guilty, of course." A murmur went across the room, and he wanted to stand up and tell them all to stop being so bloody melodramatic, but he couldn't, his arms were shackled to the chair he sat in.

"The maximum sentence for these crimes is twenty-five years, but due to your," the judge paused, thinking over his words, "youth and situation, I sentence you to twelve years in Azkaban Prison, with a chance for early parol." The courtroom descended into uproar, some clapping, some claiming corruption. Albus' smile remained on his face, he certainly was not going to be there that long. A flashbulb popped.

–/-

"Why Albus? That's what I don't understand." Albus gave a snort, the auror had said almost the same thing only a few days before.

"Because I wanted to." His voice came out as vicious snarl. "I'm not you. I don't want to do what's right, what's the most noble cause, I want to do what I want to do. I refuse to be a slave to this society any longer." Harry Potter looked down at his son with sadness, why did he get this way, how did he get this way? But he said no more, and left the small cell.

–/-

The cold air of the North Sea bit into him as they crossed in a small boat over to the prison that was Azkaban. It rose out of the rough grey sea like a shard, it's wall smooth and unassailable. Thank Merlin it did not still have dementors, the wraith-like creatures circling the building would have made him even more scared than he already was. The boat pitched and rolled, and he focused his efforts onto keeping himself warm, and not focusing on the building in front of him. Instead he looked at the man beside him, another prisoner, who had bright ginger hair and a rugged face, but looked away when he gave a threatening snarl. He moved his gaze down to his fingers, and looked down to the bottom of the boat.

After what felt like an age, they finally arrived at the entrance of the prison, two wooden doors rose high above them, the only entrance to the fortress. The guard knocked at the door, and the doors began to open, swinging aside slowly. Once they were open far enough to let the seven people standing at the entrance, he was prodded by the man behind him.

"Move." He obediently walked forwards, and stopped when told. They had moved into a small room, with a guard sitting at a desk. He had been reading a copy of the _Daily Prophet _and Albus looked at the headline, '_HARRY POTTER THE BWL'S SON SENT TO PRISON FOR DARK MAGIC', _he glanced at the article, but all he read before the man placed the newspaper on the desk was the name of the journalist, and the sentence _'It was the day we never thought would come.' _In the centre of the newspaper there was a picture of him being sentenced, but he did not have a chance to see anything else.

"Prisoner Name?" The guard asked him, and he rose an eyebrow, surely he could recognise him.

"Albus Serverus Potter."

"Number?" The guard had turned to the auror stood next to him.

"1491." He looked down and a list, and evidently found the number.

"He's in cell number 15, High Security." Two of the red robed aurors move themselves towards him, and grabbed him by the arm, before practically dragging him to the left, and up some stone stairs. As he walked into the main cell block, he glanced nervously at the people in the cells around him. These were Death Eaters! Why was he being put here?

"Is that Harry Potter?" One asked.

"Finally done him in."

"No, that's not Harry Potter, too young." Another voice called out. He was about to reply, when one of the aurors who were with him shouted,

"QUIET!" And the accusations stopped. The walked for a few more moments between stopping outside what was presumably cell number fifteen, one took a key and unlocked the door, before throwing him in. He held his hands out to stop his fall, but it was useless and he remained sprawled on the floor when he heard one of the guards speak to him through the bars.

"Don't expect any special treatment because of who you are, Potter. You're just as bad as the rest of them." He had turned around to face the guard, although he was still sitting. In response he spat at the ground, but it was too late. The guards had gone. And now he was alone, with only the prisoner opposite's questions and cold stone of his cell for company.

–/-

Fin.

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**Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. Remember my pleas for reviews as well... **

**Along with this, I would also like to say that I may write some one shots as well, but I'll probably post them on this story, so it's not a bad idea to story alert if you want more of this story, although I go back to school soon, and due to the fact my school has banned ffn (boarding school) and also because I need to work hard and can't really afford to be distracted this year, I am not sure whether I will post them. But I might. Haha.**

**Anyway, thank you again for reading.**

**-UPDATE 18.9.12: I just edited a few of the mistakes out of the story, since I was reading through it and saw some really dumb ones. Ooops.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Whhhey, procrastination! I was bored, so I managed to write this in that time... I have a feeling it's pretty crap, but you know, it's something. I haven't written anything for a while, so my writing skills are pretty rusty. Maybe I will continue this, I'm not quite sure. I kind of want Albus to win, but at the same time, I don't really want him to. It's difficult. **

**Anyway, review please, it's nice to get them- just to know that someone is reading my writing. I hope you enjoy this though!**

* * *

_**Infamy- Part 3**_

Albus had sat unmoving in his cell for hours on the day of his twenty-second birthday, remembering his birthdays at home. They seemed far away now, like a distant memory or dream of a past life. He stared at the wall blankly, all he ever saw was grey, the grey of the walls, the grey of the sky, the grey of the sea far below him, and even the food seemed grey. His hand moved up and scratched his chin through the beard he had grown, he looked like a wild hermit now, with a long, bushy black beard, wild black hair, and dirt from years of not washing smeared on his face.

Albus did not even know how he knew it was his birthday. Or maybe he did, maybe he was forgetting something. He did not know, the days melded into one, seemingly never endless, never interrupted. Or at least not usually. If to-day was his twenty second birthday, then it meant that he had spent around three years in this hell. He had nine years left, nine years of exactly the same thing.

At the beginning, Albus was sure he was going to be able to escape, but he had realised that they were far cleverer than him, an eighteen (nearly nineteen) year old boy. Animagus transformations were blocked, metal cutlery was banned, and there was an enchantment on the entire place which made the prisoners docile. It would occasionally fail, when the weather was bad, or when a new prisoner came into the block- but usually the prisoners of his prison block stared blankly at the wall as he did, or out of their small windows down to the sea; seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Occasionally they would chat to each other, although Albus barely ever spoke to them, not even to explain who he was, and it felt as if he were back in his first year at Hogwarts again. It was, therefore, usually quiet, only interrupted by the crashing of the waves down below.

He felt something sail past him, somehow getting through the bars to his cell, and he looked around. The person in the cell in front of him was staring at him.

'What?' He asked suddenly, his voice was croaky from lack of use, and he felt himself becoming slightly embarrassed about this.

'What's your name?' Why the sudden interest now, after three years, Albus couldn't understand? He remained silent for a moment, looking at the grey haired man in front of him. He had hollowed cheeks and his skin was wrinkled and saggy, his hair had not been cut and so looked similar to Albus', although it was even more wild. Realising that this probably wouldn't hurt him if he told the man his name, he slowly opened his mouth to speak again.

'Albus,' he paused.

'Albus what?' Again Albus did not speak, inspecting the man once more with his eyes.

'Potter.' The man looked slightly taken aback, mad blue eyes widening in surprise. 'What's yours?'

'Felix,' now it was the man's turn to remain silent, but he soon broke this. 'Lestrange.' Albus had heard the name before, Bellatrix Lestrange was well known in his family, she had killed one of James' namesakes and he could dimly remember his grandmother telling him about how she had killed the infamous woman. 'What are you here for then?' Albus jumped, his thoughts interrupted.

'Dark curses, an unforgivable. You?'

'I was a Death Eater.' Felix smirked, obviously expecting Albus to be surprised, but he simply nodded and then looked back down to the floor. His throat hurt, possibly because it had been so long since he'd last spoken to anyone.

'You're not Harry Potter's son are you?'

'I am.'

'You look like him.' Albus gave a shrug, he felt too tired to explain the whole story, yet for some reason, a feeling of excitement about taking in the first time in years helped him break- to some extent- through the enchantment.

'How the hell did you get in this block though? How long's your sentence?'

'Twelve years, I had the chance of parole at some point, I don't know. I can't reall- I can't remember.' He puzzled over this for a moment. 'It's been three years though, I know that. So I guess I have nine left. As for why I'm in this block,' he gave a hollow laugh, 'they probably wanted to punish me. I don't know.'

'You're lucky you didn't get life.'

'I am.' The sleepiness he had felt earlier overtook him once again, and he looked back at the man, 'I would talk more, but I just can't concentrate.' He wanted to say more, but he felt too tired to even talk, all he could do was drag himself towards the thin metal bed in the far side of the cell and lay down on it, before sleep overtook him.

–/-

However, slowly, Albus began to feel lucidity return to him. It was a timely process, but the more he talked to the man in front of him, the more he began to remember and see. The world did not seem so simple anymore, he was no longer content with staring at his grey wall or out onto the grey sea. And in some ways, he wished that he could be back in his half-drugged state, feeling time simply running through his fingers like sand.

Quickly he pushed himself out of his bed, he could hear footsteps and the clang of the metal cell doors being opened and swinging back onto the bars they were attached to. It must be time for the daily exercise, a hour each day where the prisoners had to follow each other around in circles. To-day was a special day, since it was the day where they would be able to get their fortnightly rations. Depending on behaviour they were given a certain amount of points, with these points they'd be able to buy different things, books- although most people could barely speak let alone read a book in the state they were in-, cigarettes, blankets. An assortment of completely vague useless items. He heard the footsteps of one of the prison guards approach him, they were short and quick and he looked up. It was a woman, she must have been new. Not bad looking, hair that was blonde and blue eyes which seemed to pierce him.

'Exercise time.' She told him, and he moved up from the bed and turned his back to her, allowing his hands to be bound by a spell. The door to his cell opened and he moved slowly towards the exit, harshly she pulled him out by his arm, and marched him down to the end of the corridor. The other prisoners from his block stood around, some quietly whispering to each other, although they stopped once she approached. Other guards were bringing the other members of the block down to the group, and once all had arrived they walked in formation down stairs to the Exercise Court.

This too was grey, although the sand on the ground broke this up. Prisoners from less high security blocks stood around, talking to each other, hands unbound. They were probably in here for less severe crimes, and Albus couldn't stop the feeling of jealousy from rising up within him, he should have been with them for the crimes he had committed. The other prisoners stared at the people from his block with suspicion, and it wasn't long till the normal abuse began to happen.

'Scum!' One of them shouted out.

'You should have been Kissed!'

'Death Eaters!' Other abusive words were shouted out, but Albus had quickly learnt to ignore them after his first few years in Azkaban. The group began to walk around in a circle, as they were forced to by the guards. The levels of inequality was insane, a couple of times the prisoners from his block had replied, but the guards had soon taught them not to with a few punches. Time seemed to pass quickly as they walked around, and the abuse had stopped. Due to the fact Albus had only really ever used his points for rations for cigarettes he had quite a few left, and a plan of escape quickly formed in his mind. Once the period of exercise was over he went up to the desk and spoke to the old man behind it, he looked up at the board behind him.

'I'd like ten packets of cigarettes, and a haircut.' Usually he never spoke to the man, who knew his usual order, but recently he had been getting books- which were aimed specifically at his block, since their titles were usually things like 'Muggles: why we need them' or 'The Poison of the Dark Arts'- and other items. The man looked at him curiously, but cast a spell and the amount of points on his counter went down.

'You can wait in queue, the cigarettes will be delivered to your cell.' Nodding, Albus went to the queue. It did not take long for the queue to die down, and soon he was stood in front of one of the prison guards, who had a board with two different hair cuts on it, one long haired, the other short haired.

'Number two please.' The guard cast a spell, and he felt clumps of his hair and his beard fall off onto the ground below him. The mirror behind the guard showed a different man to the one which had previously been standing in it, and Albus saw how different he now looked with short hair and no beard. He had gone from looking like some kind of mad-man to someone who was a normal member of society. 'Thanks.'

–/-

It was not long before he managed to convince the female guard to start talking to him, and his plan of escape was progressing quickly. He found out her name was Sarah, she was a half-blood, and he recognised her from being a few years above him when he was at school. For once, it seemed, luck was shining on him, after years of having male guards, he was finally able to get a guard who might be manipulated into letting him escape. It was a long shot, attempting to get a prison guard to fall in love with him, but it was the only shot he had. Aside from his attempts to be better at wandless magic of course.

They were not actually going too bad really, he had managed to get the books he had bought to move and flames to come up from his fingers. But it wasn't as if he was going to be able to do the magic he needed to escape any time soon, so it was on his other plan that he was focusing. Most of his days now he spent smoking cigarettes, imaging the outside world, what it was going to be like once he had escaped.

The smoke drifted out from his mouth, and he turned his head to look at the prisoner in front of him. Felix had been moved to another cell, or maybe he had been released, he did not know, but one day he had been taken by the guards and never returned. Soon after another prisoner had appeared in Felix's old cell, a woman called Flavia Hellson- another former Death Eater.

'How are you to-day?' He asked, and she looked back at him, she too was unkept, similar to how he had been before he had begun his plan, and her hair was matted and fell in dark clumps down her shoulders.

'Fine. You?'

'Alright.' He gave a laugh. He didn't quite know why, perhaps he was going insane.

'Any news from the outside?' She would always buy the paper with the points she had collect, but she gave a shake of her head.

'Not really, they found some Dark Arts group operating within the Ministry though.'

'Anyone we know?'

'No, half-bloods I think, I couldn't place their names. Your brothers an Auror now, his name was in there.' Another laugh escaped his mouth, of course, James was clearly always going to go down that path. With nothing else to talk about he turned away from the woman, and stubbed the cigarette out, after having one last drag, on the floor. Looking upwards he could see the smoke collecting at the top of the ceiling, the draughts in the small cell making it swirl.

His lighter was left discarded on the floor; he had once tried to burn the place down in some desperate attempt at escape, but there were fireproofing charms on the items in his cell. The blue object lay on the floor, and he pushed it up to the top of his cell and it stopped moving by the packets of cigarettes that were laying on the floor. Sighing he lay down onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling, before closing his eyes, letting dreams of the past fill his mind.

–/-

His twenty-third birthday arrived and went without much fanfare, aside from the fact that it meant he knew that it was another sign of time passing him by. His attempt to get the prison guard to like him had not worked, in fact it had failed miserably. Once again his hair grew long and he was beginning to see the return of his hermit's beard. It was hard to keep focus any longer, it seemed to him as if he was going to be trapped until his sentence ran its course.

–/-

A punch hit him squarely in the face and the pain of it made him curl his fist into a tight ball, how he wished he could hit the person back. He looked at the curly haired prison guard and sneered at him, it was Molblaster. It was always going to be Molblaster.

'What did you do to manage to get yourself posted here?' He asked with a note of malice in his voice. He was met by another punch, and blood trickled down his face. 'Fuck up an investigation? Take a bribe?'

'Quiet Potter.' Albus stared back defiantly, the little interrogation room in Azkaban followed the same colour scheme as the rest of the place, that is to say grey, and had a small off-green table in the middle of the room, alongside a mirrored window to the side. The other guards in the prison were probably watching what was happening right now. Thankfully he'd never been submitted to this type of treatment before by the guards, but some of the other prisoners complained about it, and sometimes he would hear the guards dragging some of the prisoners back into their cells late in the night. His name had managed to stop it from happening, but Molblaster was hardly going to let up a chance to hit his old enemy in the face was he?

'My name's not Potter. I don't even think I have a name anymore.' He gave a laugh, it sounded like he was insane, all his laughs did. That's what six years of near isolation got him.

'Your name never really was Potter was it? You were never a true Potter.' Albus remained silent, he felt another punch hit him, this time in the stomach. 'And to answer your question, I didn't get transferred here against my own will. I asked.' His face split into a wide sinister grin.

'Fuck you.'

'Have you ever felt a Crucio? It's one of the most painful things you'll ever experience. It feels as if every part of you is on fire and dipped in acid at the same time.' Molblaster's fist collided with his eye, and his head hit the wall. It reminded him of that time at school, except this time he had to suffer through it. 'Fucking traitor.' He felt a kick, and he fell down onto the floor, instinctively he pulled his legs up and sat their waiting in a ball waiting for the torment to be over.

–/-

Blood had dried on his face again after the most recent beating Molblaster had given, and Albus marvelled at the man. How he couldn't get bored of beating the same person up at least ten times in two months was really a wonder. There was a storm approaching, and wind whistled through the window in his cell, and slowly he pushed himself up from his bed, towards the bucket of water in the side of the room. He grabbed the cloth, which was dirtied from previous blood stairs, and dipped it into the water and slowly wiped the crusty blood of his face. The dirty water ran down his face, and he could feel his will to live slowly collapsing.

He had to get out. If it was the last thing he did he was going to get out. And when he did there was going to be hell to pay, Molblaster for one was going to suffer. Continuing to wipe the cloth over his face until it was clean, he began to think of how he was going to get out, but there was no way he could put up with six more years. A plan came to mind, but it seemed risky. It was, however, the only thing he had left.

Realising that someone was watching him, Albus turned his head to Flavia.

'Are you alright?' She asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

'Never been better.'

'It's insane. How are they doing this to you?' He ran a hand through his hair, and winced when it touched a bruise he had forgot about.

'It's not them. It's just him.' They didn't speak for a moment, but suddenly he gave a grin (another painful move, but he had learnt to ignore the pain most of the time from his weekly beatings.) 'When I get out he'll realise the mistake he's made.'

–/-

'Potter wake up.' The dark-haired man lay unmoving on the floor, and Molblaster swore. 'Stop fucking around, get up.' It took everything in Albus not to smile at the panicked tone in his voice. 'Fuck.' He heard Molblaster move away, to the other end of the cell, and then pace back again. 'Smith! Johnson! I need some help!' Molblaster stopped pacing for a moment, but then it started again, after about thirty seconds, he heard the door to the room open, and it sounded as if two more people had entered.

'What happened?'

'I don't know, he just passed out.' There was a pregnant pause, and then Molblaster spoke again. 'Help me take him to the nursing station, we'll just say we found him like this in his cell or something.'

'What about the bruises?'

'Prisoner fight. I don't know, but if something's happened, he needs to get better soon. Shit! Shit! Shit! Shi-' Molblaster cut himself off, and Albus could hear his clothes rustle. 'It's Harry fucking Potter's son! I'm going to get fired for this!'

'It's fine, he probably just passed out from the pain, the coward.' He felt his legs being picked up, and he made sure that he was completely limp, and soon after he was picked up by his arms and was being carried.

–/-

He felt sorry for the poor guard who had left his wand around a sleeping high security patient, but the guy was obviously an idiot. He had fallen asleep whilst watching him, and Albus gave another look at the fair haired man, then he gave a glance at the door, it looked as if there were two guards standing outside there as well. Wordlessly he summoned the object to him, and he felt the wood in his hand, it didn't feel quite right, but it was better than nothing.

Albus pointed the object at the man, and as quietly as he could he whispered out, _'Imperio!' _It probably wasn't the best magic to use after six or so years without a wand, but time was of the essence. Praying that the spell had worked, he thought over the instructions to the man.

_'Go over to the door.'_

_'I don't want to. Why?'_

_'Go.' _The man was easy to manipulate and he stood up from the chair, and opened the door. '_Tell them you need to go to the loo, and then walk down the hall to the loos.'_

_'Why?'_

_'Do it.' _Albus could hear the conversation outside, and sure enough another guard came in. Before he could do anything, Albus shot another imperio at the guard.

_'Go and stun the other guard, and then I want you to do it to yourself.'_

_'No.' _This guard was harder than the other, and he could feel the guard try and shake it off. He increased his concentration slightly more, and he felt the other man's shields begin to fall, and the man turned, zombie-like, towards the door, took out his wand and cursed the other guard who fell to the floor with a thud, before the same curse hit him.

Speedily he pushed himself out of his bed, and pulled the uniform off the guard before ripping off his clothes, and changing into it himself. The thing was far to big for him, but the rags he wore were disintegrating, it was also slightly more subtle. He also grabbed the two wands from the guards, and he glanced briefly at the female one, it was Sarah. To curse or not to curse. It was a conundrum, and he sent a slicing curse at the other guard, hopefully he'd be too weak to move once he awoke, though it shouldn't kill him. Deciding against cursing Sarah, he conjured a piece of rope, and bound it to he wrists before dragging her inside the room, before walking out and locking the door with another spell.

_'Come back to me.' _He sent out, and soon he saw the red clad guard walking down the corridor.

_'I want you to go to my cell, let out Hellson and Nott and give them one these wands and your own. Then I want you to lead them back to me. If anyone asks, you're interrogating them.' _At once the man moved away, and Albus prayed that his Imperius curse was as good as it used to be. He also hoped that no one would come walking down the corridor. Just to make sure he disillusioned himself, and waited.

–/-

'Potter, what are you doing?' Nott asked him once they arrived back, and Albus marvelled at how alike he looked to his son.

'Getting you out of here.'

'This is insane!' He all but shouted, and Albus lifted his finger to his lips and looked down the stone corridor. The torches flicked, but aside from that nothing moved.

'It's the only chance you two have of ever leaving this place alive, and there's no way I'm staying here any longer.' Hesitantly both the man and the woman nodded their heads, and Albus felt a genuine smile light up his face.

_'How do I get off here?'_

_'There are brooms you can use.' _

_'Good, get me three of them, and my wand if you can.' _The guard moved away, his movements slow, and Albus couldn't stop the glimmer of hope bubbling up inside him.

–_/-_

The fair haired guard returned soon enough, with three brooms, but wandless, and Albus gave a small sigh. It was a long shot. He stunned the man, and bound his wrists too, before dragging him inside the room, not forgetting to lock it again. It might take a while for them to find him again. There was a rush one got from doing magic after so long, and it was hard to stop himself from feeling dizzy with the adrenalin from his escape and the headrush that doing magic again gave him. But he knew he couldn't get distracted.

'Come on. Come with me.' He said, turning to the other two, both of whom had worried expressions on their faces, but followed him nevertheless. Before long they had arrived at an outwards facing wall, and for the second time that night Albus made a quick prayer before launching a blasting curse at the stone wall, luckily the stone broke and the bricks fell down to the ground, twirling helplessly in the air. Green eyes studied the outside, there was a storm but they were just going to have to chance it, swiftly he disillusioned the whole group before climbing onto the broom. 'I hope you two are good on a broom.' With a mad laugh he launched himself off the edge and soon enough he was flying, flying out to freedom.

–/-

The sea was dark and stormy beneath him, and the wind was making it extraordinarily hard to fly but a glance behind him told him that the other two were still behind him. They must have been flying for at least fifteen minutes in that weather, just attempting to stay alive before he spotted at fishing boat beneath him. With the knowledge that the chance of death was significantly higher if he decided to carry on flying, he brought his broom down and was flying towards the boat.

Down below the two sailors on the boat saw the figure in the sky fly closer and closer towards them, wondering what in hell was happening. It seemed as if it was only five seconds and soon the man was landing on the deck, two more came down within fifteen seconds of him, and the two sailors glanced nervously at each other. Suddenly the man brought out at wooden stick and pointed it at them.

'Who are you? Wha-' One of the sailors shouted out over the storm, and the waves were causing the boat to move around, making it hard for the five people to stand. The man cut of the sailor.

'My names Albus,' an insane grin made it's way onto his face, 'and I've just escaped from a very bad place. And you're going to help me get far far far away.' It sounded like he was talking to a small child, and Gregory, the more fiery blooded of the two suddenly shouted out.

'Yeah you and what army!?' There was a brief flash, which seemed to come from the stick, and then nothing.

–/-

_Albus Potter and Two Death Eaters Escape From Azkaban: Minister Vows to Catch Them_

_By Mafalda Scribius_

_To-day, in the early hours of the morning, Albus Potter, the infamous son of the Boy Who Lived, and two former Death Eaters- Mr Nott and Ms Hellson- escaped from Azkaban Prison. Whilst the exact details of the escape are not known, it appears that Mr Potter engineered the escape by posing as sick and going in to the Sick Bay for a time. Three guards were founded stunned, two bound, whilst one had been hit by a more serious curse causing him to be rushed to St Mungo's. A source told the Daily Prophet, 'We think they've all been Imperius-ed, there's no other way that he could have got out, it's mad really.' _

_ When questions were asked as to why and how Potter managed to plan this escape, Guard Molblaster said, 'Mr Potter was able to escape through trickery, starting with him having pretended to have caught a stomach bug yesterday morning.' Questions have been raised by many as to whether our streets are really safe, with breakouts from Azkaban being so seemingly easy. The Potter family were unable to give a statement at this time, although the Minister for Magic said 'Mr Nott, Mrs Hellson, and Mr Potter will be brought to justice, and possibly tried again when caught. The security in Azkaban Prison will also be updated. That is all I can say for now.'_

_-For more on the escapees, turn to page 3._

_-For more on the Potter family, turn to page 4._

–_/-_

_Potter Escaped From Azkaban Using A BROOM: The Prophet Asks, Are We Really That Safe?_

_By Jeremy Stylo_

_Evidence to show that the recent escape by Albus Potter and others was completed by broom, as new details of the escape emerged to-day. Confirming this, Guard Molblaster said 'We managed to track them to about mid-way between the mainlland and the Prison, where they just seemed to disappear.' When questioned as to why there were even brooms inside the prison, Molblaster replied, 'they are used for tracking down escapees, especially after the breakouts of the late-1990's, in the Second Wizarding War. But in the light of this new evidence, it has been questioned as to whether these devices are needed, or whether they are a security risk. The Daily Prophet is therefore leading the campaign for Making Our Streets Safe Again and will be petitioning the Minister to have these objects removed from all prisons._

_ In other news there were claims by people that Potter and co. were spotted as far away as Timbuktu, and as near as Hogsmeade. One person even claimed they saw Albus Potter in the Ministry of Magic, but it later turned out to be Mr Potter Snr. The Deputy Head Auror James Potter- the brother of Albus Potter- said to-day, 'All sightings of Albus Potter, Hellson, and Nott are being taken very seriously, with all leads being followed up.' The Potter family also released a statement to-day saying, 'We hope that all of the missing prisoners from Azkaban are returned there soon, and we wish to publicly distance ourselves from Albus Potter. We also ask for your privacy at this time.'_

_For more on where Potter has been sighted, turn to page 4._

_For more on the disastrous security procedures in Azkaban, turn to page 5._

–/-

Albus and the others managed to reach the mainland with the help of the Imperius-ed fishermen, and from there it was easy. The appiration barrier stopped about one hundred kilometres from the prison, and so it was not hard for Albus to transport himself to London. He wasn't sure where the other two were going, he wasn't even sure why he had helped them escape, but he had developed a fondness for Flavia, and it only seemed fair to get Nott's father out at the same time. As soon as he could he cut his over grown hair, using a spell of course, and it felt night to once again look unlike a madman.

He, however, now had things to do. The Aurors would probably be swarming all over his friends' houses, but he needed to get a message to them. Becoming the Master of Death was his main priority, and time in Azkaban, and even before, had given him time to think about how he could achieve that.

Nevertheless, the whole escape plan was pretty poor. Sure he was going to be able to get out, but where the hell to go afterwards was a whole other question. Right now he stood right at the end of Knockturn Alley, a hood disguising his identity. He had spotted a few posters with his face on them, and he knew how easily recognisable he would be, he had only managed to get the cloak by disillusioning himself and stealing it from a shop, but the red prison uniform of Azkaban was easily seen from beneath.

Aurors were walking around the streets everywhere, even here, and he had to take a deep breath to calm himself when they walked past, the entire world seemed full of danger. It might be an idea to hide himself in the Muggle world and wait until the whole thing blew over, but he wasn't a patient person. He had no possessions but a stolen wand, a stolen cloak, and stolen clothes. For days he had been sleeping in rainy alleys, and the wet of the rain had soaked right through his bones. He gave a sigh, and moved stealthily down the alley, to ensure that he was not spotted. Regardless, it was still a possibility that he would be seen, and so he tried to look as normal as possible.

His mind ran through what he could do, but there was really little at the moment. Aside from trying to track down Nott that is, who presumably still had the cloak, wand, and stone. It was still raining, and the clouds overhead were grey enough that it seemed it wasn't going to stop anytime soon, and in a half-hearted attempt to get out of the rain, he headed into the small tavern opposite him. It was risky, but he would do anything to get out of the damn rain.

The tavern was small, and made out of wood, to the side there was a small booth with a floo-telephone in and by it a book. Grasping at straws, Albus moved towards the little booth, and opened up the book. Theoretically it would have Nott's place of work in there, maybe that would be a better place to find him than his home address. He scanned the names, Norris, Nosum, Nostings, Nott. Looking across from the name of his friend it said:

'_Place of Work: Borgins and Burke.(9am-6pm)_

_Home Address: 32 Mulkins Lane.'_

There, that was a start.

–/-

'I'm looking for Mr Nott.' Albus said once he stepped inside the small shop, and a withered old man looked back at him, Albus couldn't remember whether it was Borgin or Burke it had been so long since he had stepped inside the shop.

'He isn't here. Who's looking for him?' Albus briefly considered throwing back the hood of his cloak and revealing himself, before deciding it was far too dramatic and stupid. It was probably better not to true the owners of the shop. Suddenly he felt a tightening in his arms and his chest, then he could feel shakiness begin to come on, and he cursed his lack of cigarettes. His eyes closed for a moment and he inhaled, attempting to put cigarettes out of his mind.

'A friend.' The old man looked at him curiously. 'Look I need to find him. He has some possessions of mine, just tell him that.'

'Do you mind if I enquire what they are?'

'A cloak, a wand, and a ring of mine.' Albus ground his teeth in exasperation, 'Do you not know where he is?' The Borgin/Burke did not reply, and Albus took this as an opportunity to glance around the shop. The objects inside had changed (or so he thought) since he had last been in, but still managed to keep the layer of dust which accumulated on all items at the shop for some reason.

'The Aurors came to interview him this morning.' The man finally said, breaking his thoughts. 'It's about this whole Albus Potter business.' At the mention of his name Albus jumped slightly, and then noticed the suspicious look that the owner was giving him. Shit.

'Alright, just tell him that I am looking for him. I'll be back to-morrow.' He probably wasn't going to be back to-morrow, the promise of gold would be too much for the old man, and it was likely that he would call the Aurors. Bidding the man goodbye, he exited the dusty shop, and once he had walked about ten metres away from place, he ran.

–/-

The Aurors probably had a lookout on Nott's house, but with any luck it should be clear from the behind. It was located in a small London street, and was relatively big- for London that is. It appeared that Nott did not want to live in a Wizarding area, since the houses around it did not look like they were owned by wizards. Albus cocked his head to the side for a moment, looking at it curiously. Night had fallen, but the light pollution meant that it was easy for him to see.

Cautiously, he apparated himself into the neighbour's garden before hopping over the fence into what was presumably his friends house. The garden was weedy and overgrown, along with being tiny, and it looked as if nobody was in, since all the lights were off. Albus walked quickly across the weeds and grass, tried the back door, it was locked. He drew out his wand, and sent an unlocking spell at it, and tried it again. It wouldn't budge.

Cursing, he looked up, there was a window with a small bit of space where he could stand. As best as he could he pulled himself up onto the ledge before smashing the glass and pulled himself into the house. Some wizards relied far too much on magic. He dusted off the fragments of glass, before sending a quick spell at the glass, causing it to float up and repair itself. When he had finally found his bearings he looked around the room he was in, it was probably the only bedroom in the house, and was quite bare.

The wooden floorboards were uncovered, and in the centre of the room was a simple bed. The lights were turned off, so he couldn't quite make out what else was in the room, but the door was simple enough to find. He walked over briskly to it, and pulled it down. Outside there was a landing, and a set of stairs that led down. There were also two other doors, one he assumed must be the bathroom, the other he couldn't figure out what would be there.

Shaking his head, he moved down the stairs silently, before reaching the ground floor. The door to the Living Room was open, and he could make out a sofa and a piano, not wishing to be seen through the windows, he walked down the corridor, where he found a kitchen. There was a small wooden table in the middle of the room, where there were two chairs and he pulled out one before sitting down, resigning himself to waiting for a bit.

One thing Azkaban had taught him was patience, so it didn't seem as if he had waited too long before heard the lock go in the front door and heard someone walked it. He checked his watch, it had actually been an hour and a half. The light in the corridor switched on, and he could hear footsteps on the wood of the stairs, which creaked as Nott made his way upstairs. Albus gave a sigh, and flicked a piece of dust of the stolen cloak.

He was about to go upstairs to visit Nott, but as he was about to stand again, he heard the door of the bathroom open and close, before the footsteps sounded as if he was coming down the stairs. It wasn't long before he could see the figure of Nott in the corridor, and the light went on in the kitchen.

'Hello.' Nott looked surprised, and then a look of fear crossed his face.

'What are you doing here?' Albus glanced at his nails before standing up.

'That's nice. No 'Nice to see you, Albus', or 'Hey, how have those years rotting in Azkaban been going?'.' Augustus gave a smile, before his look turned worried again.

'They've been interrogating me all day, you might not want to be here at the moment, I am sure they have people looking at the house right now.'

'It's fine, I came in through the window. You might want to update your wards by the way.' Nott gave a nod, and then looked at Albus curiously.

'What are you doing here then? I am sure this isn't a social call.' The Potter nodded seriously.

'I need the Hallows.'

'How did you know I had them?'

'I knew Scorpius wouldn't keep them, he would have been too scared.' The other man nodded, before speaking.

'Do you know what to do with them?'

'I have an idea.' They both stood their silently, before Nott went out of the room for a moment, and Albus could hear a door opening and closing. He looked around the kitchen from boredom, and noticed that it looked quite... Muggle. It was strange to see his old friend living like this, he had always seemed so Wizard-like at school. For a moment Albus thought about how they had all changed. When he had gone away to prison they had all been boys, and now, they were men.

'Here.' Nott had come back into the room and held a piece of silky material in his hands, Albus assumed that the stone and the wand were enclosed within it, and he took them from his friend.

'You don't mind if I do this here?'

'What do you have to do?' Albus gave a small smile.

'I'm not entirely sure. But I have a feeling I need to to this.' He dropped the cloak onto the floor, and the folds opened, and the Elder Wand and ring could be seen lying on top of the silvery material. Albus pulled his wand out from his pocket, and a burst of flame came out from the top of it, then he traced the symbol of the Deathly Hallows onto the table, before splitting the wand in two and kicking it beneath the table, he didn't need to use it now. Quickly he grabbed the cloak from the floor and laid it on the table before placing the ring on the table, then he pushed the wand through it and looked at the table.

Nothing happened for a moment, and Nott opened his mouth to speak, but before he could there was a blinding flash of light, and Albus placed his hand on all three objects. It felt as if he were being pulled down a hole by his hand, and he closed his eyes. Suddenly, everything around him felt still, and he hesitantly opened his eyes. He was standing in what he could only describe as being white, there wasn't a floor, or a ceiling, but he was standing on something. In the distance he could make out a black robes figure making his way towards him.

He swallowed, from what it looked like, it was Death, scythe and all. His heart beat slightly faster in his chest, and it seemed like an eternity before the figure came close enough for Albus to make out it's features. It looked like what he thought a dementor would look like, except for instead of only darkness in the hood he could make out a face, although he couldn't see much. Death didn't seem to walk, instead the cloak splayed out across the ground and the figure merely seemed to float.

'Do not be afraid.' The voice sounded ethereal, but there was chilling hint within it, the voice was female but with an accent he could not place.

'Where am I?'

'Purgatory,' it made a gesture with a move of its arm, 'the souls of the dead are all around you, but you cannot see them.' He glanced nervously to his side, it was unnerving for him to know there was something he could not see. 'So, you have become Master of Death?'

'I believe so.'

'It is interesting, to see someone so young. The last person who came close was of a similar age though.'

'Who? My father?'

'No, he never had the intention, the last one's name was Gellert Grindlewald.' The voice paused for a moment, 'You have managed to figure it out, so I suppose that you shall become Master of Death.' Albus was surprised, there wasn't a catch.

'Is that it?' His fear had begun to dissipate, and he could feel Death staring back at him.

'Your fate is written in the stars Albus Potter, I must allow it to run its course.'

'But what happens when I am Master of Death?' The figure was fading.

'You will know, but remember Albus, there is a price to everything, and you cannot live forever. Try to make the right decisions.' He tried to talk, but nothing came out of his mouth, and suddenly he could see them, the spirits he was told about. One looked at him particularly sadly, he had an friendly face and although the spirits colours were dimmed, he could make out long black hair and grey eyes. Albus could see he was trying to say something to him but nothing came out of his mouth either. His hand reached out and touched him, and for a moment he could hear a voice in his head.

_'You look like your father Albus, just as he did his. But he and I both weep for what you have become. Stop yourself be-' _The voice was cut off, and suddenly there was darkness.

–/-

'Are you alright Albus?' He could hear the voice above him, and he looked up. Augustus was standing over him, his head silhouetted by the bright light above him.

'What happened?' He turned his head and noticed that he was lying on the floor.

'I don't know, there was this flash, and you were gone for a second, but then you just appeared back here, and fell over straight onto your back.' Albus looked up, and scrunched his eyes. 'What happened to you?'

'I met Death. She t-'

'She?'

'Yeah, it had a woman's voice.'

'I never knew death was a woman.' He gave a laugh, and Albus pushed himself off the floor and stood up, for a moment he felt as if he was about to fall over again, but he steadied himself by holding onto one of the white counters.

'Well, I suppose she is,' he paused, wondering how to describe what had happened, 'she told me basically that I am the Master of Death now.'

'That's it?'

'I'm paraphrasing, but yes.'

'Do you feel any different?' Albus stayed silent, and closed his eyes, _did _he feel any different? Not really, but there was an undertone, something he supposed.

'A bit. I don't know.' His green eyes flashed with a hint of victory, and his mouth turned up into a smile. 'We did it though, it took a long time, but we did it.' Augustus stared at him, and then his mouth split into a grin as well.

'What do you do now though? You're still on the run.' The Nott heir said, stating the obvious.

'I think I need to _persuade _the Minister of something. Is it still Wemberly?' Wemberly had just got in when he had been sent to prison, and he was more old-school than any Minister had been since Crouch- in the sense that there were rumours of bribes, even when he was just a junior minister.

'He's still there.'

'Well, I'll just have to go and plead for clemency then.'

–/-

It was easy enough for Albus to get to the Minister's office, and even though it was nearly eleven o'clock, Albus was sure that his escape was probably causing him to have a few late nights at the Ministry. A smile made its way onto his face at the knowledge of that. He had discovered that he was able to move smoke-like through walls and wards as Master of Death, as Death had told him, he would know what his powers were. It was like a strange form of apparation, similar, but at the same time completely different, he could slow it down, or speed it up but it wasn't like a form of teleportation. When Albus tried to explain it to Nott, he found it hard, and simply shook his head.

Right now he had just materialised in the Minister's office, an old fashioned wood covered thing, there was a desk at the far-end of it, and a bookshelf at the opposite end, filled with what looked like the most uninteresting books ever; _'The Ministry in the Second and Third Goblin War' _and _'Muggle and Wizarding Political Systems'._ Just behind the Minister's desk there was a fireplace, which currently was not burning. The Minister himself sat hunched over the desk, clearly reading a document by candle light, and he heard the grey haired man give out a sigh. Albus faced a conundrum, should he alert the Minister to his presence or would the man notice in time, or maybe he could try and really scare the man. It was difficult, but he decided against scaring him, fun as it may have been, there were more important things that he had to deal with.

He used the Elder Wand to send a locking charm at the door, and then gave a cough. The man looked up from the desk, and clearly couldn't figure out who the person in front of him was in the dark.

'Who's that?' The Minister asked, before making to stand up.

'I'd stay seated if I were you.' Albus moved forward to the light, and the Minister's face briefly registered the surprise he was clearly feeling.

'How did you get in here?' In return the green-eyed man just smiled.

'It's a pretty long story, but I've found a new form of travel.' Albus twirled the wand around in his fingers, and looked at the man for a moment, before stepping closer to the desk. 'I've come to ask for clemency.'

'What? You're a convicted criminal!' The man half-shouted, 'It would be political suicide.'

'We all know you're on the way out anyway. But regardless, I am sure I can... convince you?' The Minister's eyes lit up, clearly excited at the prospect of gold, and Albus shook his head. 'Not in that way I'm afraid, rather I thought I might demonstrate some new powers I picked up recently.' With a ironic laugh, he transported himself through the room, 'See no need for apparation wards, because I can get through them, or what about this?' Suddenly the room went very cold, and the Minister stared at the young man in front of him with fear, quickly he pushed himself up and tried to run to the door, and Albus simply laughed as he failed to open the door. The greying man was resigned to his fate, of reliving his worst memories again and again, and Albus could feel all the happiness being sucked out of the room. 'Do you want me to stop?' He asked of the Minister and the man gave a sullen nod, before letting out a whimper. Albus slowly let the room return to normal, and he stared down at the hunched man on the floor.

'What are you?'

'I am still Albus Potter. And I am still asking you for clemency.'

'You know I couldn't do that.'

'What about if I told you I was abused in Azkaban, one of the guards there beat me up solidly for two months. I collapsed, and was taken to the Sick Bay, where I finally saw a chance to be able to escape the pain an misery that the man caused me, the same man who I sent a dark curse at all those years ago because he himself sent one at me, and I was trying to counter it,' Albus said, the last part was a lie, but there was no evidence to show that Molblaster had not, it was impossible to find out every spell cast on a specific wand, after about two years. 'And I couldn't say anything against him because he was dear to my cousin Rose, and I was already kicked out by my family.' The Minister looked unconvinced.

'I don't believe it,'

'Do you want to see the bruises where he hit me? Did you know that this happens all over Azkaban, to many of prisoners, who are just beaten up for the guards sick pleasure?' Albus bit his lip, and thought for a moment, 'You have seen what I can do, so I'm going to tell you this now, I can either make life very easy for you, or very difficult. You and I both know that Azkaban cannot hold me, and what is better politically, multiple breakouts from Azkaban- and mark my words I will break out every single Death Eater from that prison- or giving me clemency? You're a politician, you should be able to make up some story.' The Minister glanced at him and then gave a resigned sigh. 'You can explain that the other two who broke out were being mistreated also.'

'I'll floo call the Aurors.'

–/-

_ALBUS POTTER GIVEN CLEMENCY: Other Azkaban escapees still at large._

_By Arthur Hacker_

_In a shock move in the early hours of the morning, the Minister for Magic has decided to grant Albus Potter clemency, saying, 'In light of new evidence, both of the crime and of Mr Potter's treatment in prison I have had to reassess whether or not he should be there. There have been claims of grave mistreatment while there by certain members of staff, and I have personally been told of evidence which was not available at the trial.' The Deputy Head of the Auror's office, James Potter said 'it is a completely unprecedented step that the Minister has taken, but his decision is final.' Political opponent Attly said that this 'further proved the Minister's incompetence' and called for his resignation. _

_ Albus Potter was seen coming out of the Ministry at around eight o'clock in the morning to-day, and was holding the possessions that he had to give over when he was arrested, including his wand. When asked for a statement he said this, 'I am glad that the Minister had been so sympathetic in my case, I simply wish to return to my old life, and pretend that the years in Azkaban never happened.' When asked about his breakout of two co-prisoners, and former Death Eaters he replied, 'They suffered just as I did, alongside this at that moment I had to make a decision, and I felt too guilty to simply leave them there.' The Potter family have also made a statement in which they said that they wished to have their privacy respected at this time. Harry Potter was seen making his way into the Ministry this afternoon. A guard at the prison who recently spoke to the Prophet, Mr Molblaster, has been suspended pending a further investigation._

_For more on Albus Potter's alleged crimes, turn to page 6_

–_/-_

It was strange for Albus to be back in society again, he had re-opened his bank account, and although he was not the richest man in Britain, the money he had was able to buy him some new robes and supplies, along with a room at an inn on Knockturn Alley. Changing into new clothes was strange after such a long time wearing dirty rags, and even stranger was having a bath, and wiping of years of accumulated dirt from his skin. But it was nice for him to return to society, it was nice to sleep in a proper bed, and to feel completely warm and satisfied.

His cheeks were still hollow and his fingers still thin, but inside he felt completely at peace. And so he lay down into the bed in place he was staying at, and finally found that he could sleep, without having to be hunched in an alleyway or curled into a ball. There was work to be done, but that was work that for now, could wait until to-morrow.

–/-

The shop Albus had owned on Knockturn Alley had remained empty for years, the residents had noticed, and it was strange to see it open again. It had been quite badly vandalised in the years between Albus' arrest and then release, but the young man had bought the property, so it couldn't be rented out again. There it had stood, for years, windows smashed and door frames rotting because no one had cared enough to board up the windows.

–/-

Albus watched as the blond man walked into his shop, which he had had to repair extensively after his release. He had aged, his baby-face had finally grown into that of an adult's, and he had grown his hair slightly longer than before, but in all honesty, Scorpius Malfoy did not look so different. Scorpius moved through the shop quickly, before standing at the desk.

'Albus.' His face looked impassive as per usual, but there was a hint of happiness in his eyes, although Albus could never really tell.

'Hello.'

'How did you do it?' The dark-hair man looked at him questioningly. 'Escape? Convince the Minister?'

'It was quite simple actually when I think about all of it, but it's a story for another time.' It was so awkward really, seeing his old friends again, and it felt like they couldn't quite understand him now, they couldn't understand what he had been through.

'I suppose so.'

'Did Augustus tell you?'

'Tell me what?'

'It worked. I met Death.' For once in his life Albus could read Scorpius' expression, which registered utter surprise at Albus' achievement, and the blond man's voice came out in a shocked whisper.

'It really worked?'

'Yeah.' He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a deep drag before talking. 'It really worked.'

'I can't believe it, Albus, I really can't.' Suddenly Malfoy stopped smiling though, 'I have one question though, what are we going to do now?'

'Lie low. I'm not sure.' The dark-haired man gave a small shake of his head. 'I can't really do anything, the press is out to get me and if I slip up at any stage I'll be thrown back in prison.'

'I know, but we can't just do nothing, this is everything we've wanted to achieve.' Scorpius bit his lip, and looked around the shop, thinking for a moment.

'We need to recruit people, it should be easy enough.' Green eyes closed, and Albus took another puff of the cigarette before extinguishing it in the ash tray in front of him, it was only half smoked, but he did not want any more of it.

'I'm not so sure, not after the fall of the Dark Lord. We'll need people who have a clear name.'

'There will be people who want to join,' Scorpius' fingers drummed on the top of the desk, making an unrelenting beat. 'A while ago they found half-bloods practising the Dark Arts in the Ministry, there are still some of us around.'

'I know. We'll figure it out.'

_**END**_

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